The Scottish Socialist Party has called for Alexander Dennis to be brought into democratic public ownership, under workers’ control, to save jobs, protect a vital manufacturing asset, and facilitate a worker-led transition to green production.
SSP National Trade Union Organiser Richie Venton wrote:
“Hot on the heels of the devastating closure of Scotland’s one remaining oil refinery at Grangemouth, another bout of industrial vandalism has been announced by another private capitalist employer – Alexander Dennis, in neighbouring Falkirk and Larbert.
“Closure of this key industrial asset, which builds buses, will wipe out 400 jobs directly, but with a multiplier of between 3:1 and 4:1 jobs in the supply line, the area faces at least 1,400 job losses.
“It threatens to turn the area into an industrial graveyard, with all the social blights that follow such a loss of skilled jobs.
“The implications of this go much further still. As UNITE the union’s Scottish secretary, Derek Thomson, put it, ‘We are absolutely sick to our stomachs. Workers building the greener buses of the future now have their livelihoods at risk. Scotland is on the brink of having zero green manufacturing capacity. How on earth will we be able to achieve any of our climate targets if we don’t retain the workers, knowledge and skills needed to deliver this future?'”
Public ownership – not pious platitudes
“Alexander Dennis was bought over by Canadian multinational New Flyer Industries (NFI) in 2019. Now they’ve announced plans to ‘rationalise’ their operations by abandoning the Scottish factories and shoving everything into Scarborough, North Yorkshire.
“NFI can’t plead poverty as an excuse for closure: they recently announced a leap in revenue and profits in 2024. Total revenue for 2024 rose by 17% to $3.12billion (£2.3billion), with profits of $350million (£250million).”
“Instead of handwringing and pious platitudes about being ‘very concerned for the families affected’ and ‘leaving no stone unturned’ – in what sounds very like recycled press releases every time a capitalist employer decides to wipe out livelihoods – the Scottish government should seize the assets of this vitally important operation, nationalise it, and make it a public enterprise that helps build a publicly owned, electric-powered, public transport network.”
No “Just Transition” possible without public ownership
“Scottish government ministers have already pleaded that procurement laws prevent them from ensuring local content – basically using local labour to meet orders. Given that public transport is a devolved issue, they should ‘stand up for Scotland’ – the real Scotland of the working-class majority, that is – by either amending these procurement laws or defying them, to save these jobs and prevent the disappearance of yet another opportunity for a genuinely ‘Just Transition’.
“Otherwise, their serialised use of that term, accompanied by zero action to achieve it – as we’ve recently witnessed at Grangemouth – just embitters workers who see no justice, let alone any real transition to clean, green production.
“Rather than bow to being held to ransom, with demands for subsides – if indeed NFI bosses even bother with that option – the knowledge, skills and dedication of the workforce should be harnessed to produce fleets of electric buses, alongside Scottish government funding to councils for full public ownership of bus services.”
Invest in green transport manufacturing
“Instead of forking out even more annual subsidies to the likes of First Bus, McGill’s, Xplore and Stagecoach than the £480million subsidies given to them from public funds last year, the Scottish government should invest in the development of a Scottish green manufacturing site.
“And lessons need to be learnt by trade unionists from the Grangemouth experience. Public campaigning is vital, to win allies in the wider working-class communities, but ultimately the appropriate forms of collective action should be deployed to force the Scottish government to step in, take over the factories, and help pave the way to a green re-industrialisation that expands jobs, rather than sheds jobs.
“Open calls for public ownership should be the cutting edge of union-led campaigning to save all these jobs, linked to demands for a worker-led transition to green transportation.”
BiFab, Grangemouth, Alexander Dennis – we need workers’ control
“The blunt, plain lesson of Grangemouth, and the previous demise of the BiFab yards in Fife, is that without public ownership under democratic workers’ control – to ensure workers with the knowledge are central to planning a rapid transition to green production – then all the talk of ‘Net Zero’ and a ‘Just Transition’ is just hot air, virtue signalling, incapable of combatting the obliteration of jobs and the desecration of the planet we live on.
“Capitalist profiteers are interested in one thing, and one thing only: the bottom line, the maximisation of profit, and to hell with the human and environmental costs.”
Good jobs and clean air: free public transport!
“In the ultimate, grossly insulting irony, the very same Alexander Dennis company website advertises careers with their firm under the headline “Are you ready to lead the transition to zero-emission mobility with us?”.
“Their website goes on to say, “We support bus companies, cities and governments globally in reducing pollution and improving air quality with cleaner buses and coaches.”!
“Really? Except when their profit margins are inadequate, by their own greedy standards!
“This capitalist multinational recognises the potential for making money out of the burning necessary of clean, green transport systems – but pulls out of Scotland, from factories there since 1895, if they can’t make big enough bucks.
“Democratic public ownership and a genuine green re-industrialisation of Scotland, including a vastly expanded public transport system – which the SSP has for 25 years advocated should be free for all citizens to travel on – is the only route to job security, job creation, and cleaner air to breathe.”