MINI Lays Off 850 at the Oxford Plant
BMW AG has laid off all 850 workers who worked weekends and has shut plant production down for one week. Additionally BMW will be laying off 150 at the MINI engine plant in Swindon UK. Here’s the latest from the BBC.
>”Mini plant Oxford will be bringing in a new shift pattern in response to continuing volatile market conditions,” a BMW statement said.
>”As of Monday 2 March, the plant will go from a three-shift to a two-shift pattern, operating five days per week instead of the current seven.”
“The company regrets that this change will result in the release of around 850 agency workers from the business,” it added.
+ 850 Workers go at MINI Factory / BBC
+ Video of Workers Clashing with Union Officials / BBC
+ Video of Workers Speak out / BBC
Thanks to everyone who sent this in. Our deepest condolences to those who’ve lost their jobs.
<p>Guess MINI won’t be setting any sales records this year. Sorry to hear that more folks are losing their jobs due to this economic downturn.</p>
<p>This economy is horrible. And folks….We haven’t seen nothin’ yet…</p>
<p>I guess since plant Oxford won’t be making that many cars, perhaps this is a good time to go over and review quality control procedures….</p>
<p>Any mention on what this means to production numbers?</p>
<p>Oh Great! I’ve got a R-56 starting production on the 2nd of March, the first week of the changeover to 2 shifts, and the first week of no weekend staff. Wonder how many problems it will have upon completion?</p>
<p>Actually Charlie, expect a better built car as there won’t be as many being churned out of the assembly line.</p>
<p>I have noticed that MINI’s product quality tends to suffer during times when their production capacity is maxed out.</p>
<p>And how exactly have you noticed that, C4? From your in-depth study of cars, production dates, and service records? what’s your sample size?</p>
<p>AN, I’ll be happy to provide you with my personal email and take this little debate offsite.</p>
<p>Are you a MINI employee? Be careful because I know a lot of people back at headquarters.</p>
<p>Oh goody, threats. Why do we have to take the debate off site? I’m sure everyone here would be fascinated to know about your scientific study into build quality. And I’m not sure why it’d matter if I worked for MINI.</p>
<p>C4, stop been a little girl. stop making threats, if you know something about MINI’s product quality just say it. “I know a lot of people back at headquarters” hahahhaaa……..</p>
<p>Amazing how some seem to get offended so easily.</p>
<p>@<a href="#comment-252678" rel="nofollow">hector M.</a>:</p>
<p>Calm down fella with the personal attacks.</p>
<p>Sorry to see Mini workers being laid off. Best wishes to the people and families affected by this. Sad to say not to surprised by this action however, the economy is a mess world wide and likely to take a while before it gets any better. Think this is a great time for Mini to carefully look at their production lines and listen to their community about improving the cars. Currently the Mini build quality is decent however the car for total quality doesn’t stand out head and shoulders against its competition. During these tight times think if they were to develop a true class leading car that it would be in a very good spot for the recovery of the economy.</p>
<p>Oh wait, they are making a SUV ;P</p>
<p>“I have noticed that MINI’s product quality tends to suffer during times when their production capacity is maxed out.” – Be careful</p>
<p>C4/Frank – Why did you switch screen names?</p>
<p>JonPD, my sentiments exactly. It is amusing to see people here getting upset when someone says that the final product is not up to QC standards. Personal attacks seems to be the preferred way of dealing with differing opinions.</p>
<p>Hey AN, did I touch a nerve?</p>
<p>I think C4’s trigger is set to be a bit more sensitive then, well, C4.</p>
<p>It’s just typical bully behavior. Idle threats, and then deflection rather than proving your suppositions.</p>
<p>Do you have proof that build quality suffers when the factory is full out?</p>
<p>Why would you threaten me about working at MINI?</p>
<p>Why do you use multiple screen names?</p>
<p>And why do I think that your reply to this won’t answer either of those questions?</p>
<p>C4 …. I also wonder how you know all this stuff… not trying to start a brawl but you do seem to spout a lot and I have always thought why don’t you have your own <strong>MINI Blog</strong>?</p>
<p>If indeed you do know all these inside folks at MINI and they have real info, we would all love to hear about it… why not build your own blog. Or… maybe you do already… Give us the link… (………………….)</p>
<p>It could be called…. <strong>“C4…I know MINIs, You Don’t!”</strong>, your tagline could be “shut up and listen!” Catchy huh, or <strong>“C4’s Petulant MINI Talk”</strong>.. tagline… “i can stamp my foot harder than you!” or maybe… <strong>“C4.. Explosive MINI Talk”</strong>… tagline… “boom, who’s next!?!”… What ya think?……. ;-)</p>
<p><strong>Now back to the post….</strong> Thought the vids at BBC interesting but couldn’t really understand what the guy who was so pissed at his union rep was saying? I those who lost there jobs will be back soon.</p>
<p>Come on guys calm down.</p>
<p>I have worked on a line before and can say build quality spikes and ebbs depending on a normal production cycle. When production is maxed things can suffer, however a production line can also suffer when going slow. I still think the general Mini build quality is pretty good overall.</p>
<p>I don’t think we should devolve into personal battles when the generally sad fact is that some of the people that have built our cars are out of work, and their families will be affected. Think we should all be mindful this is affecting a lot of good people.</p>
<p>I am very calm. And it does suck that MINI has had to let some people go. But I also wonder how C4 knows what he claims to know. The line has been working flat out for two years, right? Since the expansion? So to C4’s point, all the R56s should be lower quality than the R50/53s. But we know this isn’t true.</p>
<p>And you can be calm and still think his threat about knowing people at MINI is a bit creepy.</p>
<p>I am out of this conversation. It is too bad that personal attacks get in the way of rational and cordial debate.</p>
<p>HA! The irony.</p>
<p>Independant of the people involved… Pretty much every endover known to man has failure rates that go up at when they’re at capacity. No time to fix little things… No time for pretty much anything other than the next one in line. Stress goes up, as does exhaustion.</p>
<p>Matt</p>
<p>Good job CFr4nk. Which part of “Be careful I know people at MINI” was cordial?</p>
<p>AN, don’t play victim. Only little girls and prima donnas do that.</p>
<p>Wait – I thought you were out of the conversation. I was looking forward to getting back to the topic at hand.</p>
<p>If I offended anyone, other than the intended, in my above post I do apologize for that. I wish the people all over the world, not just MINI folk, who have lost their jobs, homes whatever the best of luck, it’s gonna be a rough year.</p>
<p>wow, real ugly video of the workers getting told they were laid off on BBC America tonight, some bad PR for MINI for sure</p>
<p>Quality does suffer as you load up the assembly process with more. I manage programmers and when there are more projects for the same amount of time, we/they tend to make more mistakes. If people are involved, then mistakes will happen. If more “things” are put through the process then more mistakes will happen. This does not have to be backed up scientifically (although it probably has been), this is common sense.</p>
<p>Does this mean that MINI may consider lowering their prices on certain models to increase sales? If so that could trigger a further drop in second hand car values? I have noticed that the private sale value of second hand MINIs have dropped more than I expected over the past year.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear about the job losses at MINI. I live in Boise, Idaho and just last week I got a letter in the mail from MINI of Murray (right outside of Salt Lake City, UT) where I purchased our first MINI. (We purchased our last two in Portland) The letter was offering $500 off invoice or in free MINI accessories if we purchase a new MINI through MINI of Murray. To my knowledge this is the first time any of the Northwest US MINI dealerships have offered anything off invoice. I’m not sure what their waiting lists look like but they must be dwindling down. I had to wait 13 months for MINI #1 in 2003-04, 10 months for MINI #2 in 2005 and only 6 months for MINI #3 in 2008. I’m curious what the wait time is now…</p>
<p>My Best Wishes to all those who lost their Jobs.</p>
<p>In regards to quality, I believe the MINI workers who are still left now feel a bit more comfortable with thier job security. I think this in turn leads to a better quality product.</p>
<p>Not that quality was an issue to begin with.</p>
<p>@<a href="#comment-252764" rel="nofollow">rs</a>:</p>
<p>Thank you, RS. I could not have said it better myself.</p>
<p>the reason that I’m angry is because, this post is about people losing their jobs. and here is C4 making threats to AN that he could get him fired. It pisses my off that people like C4 since he “knows” people, he can walk over anybody like their trash. and like a typical jerk now he is the victim (I may be wrong, but there is many of us that have to work with jerks like this) my heart goes out to anybody that had lost their job.</p>
<p>Hector, It is very easy to judge people over the internet, isn’t it?</p>
<p>Ok – we’re done. Thank C4 for closing down the comment section of this post.</p>
<p>99.9% of commenters on MF are great about being courteous and gracious with comments. Unfortunately some are not. And to those I’d like to remind you of our guidelines below:</p>
<p><b>MotoringFile reserves the right to edit or delete any post for any reason. Derogatory comments of any kind will not be tolerated.</b></p>
<p>Again our condolences go out to those who lost their jobs.</p>