Image Courtesy of: Birmingham Mail

This past Saturday, up to 1000 people marched in Aston to support workers currently facing layoffs at the HP Sauce factory in Birmingham. Pickets at the rally carried slogans like “Lies Means Heinz�, “Save Our Sauce�, “HP IS BRUM� and “Keep HP British�. The factory which dates back to 1875 was purchased by Heinz less than a year ago in a deal worth £470 million. Many factory workers have publicly stated that the Heinz announcement to move production of HP Sauce to Holland is contrary to announcements made less than a year ago when Heinz made promises to preserve the local Aston workforce. Hence the placards “Lies Means Heinz�, and frankly who can blame them for calling Heinz out like that.

Now that the rally is over, the Birmingham Mail is reporting that the fight may now be moving from people marching in the streets to the political arena where Ministers are set to step in to help find a financial rescue package to keep HP from moving abroad.

Following the successful rally of support for the 125 HP Sauce workers this past weekend by the people of Birmingham, city MP Khalid Mahmood has arranged a meeting between the Department of Trade & Industry minister Ian McCarthy and Heinz executives.

Perry Barr Labour MP, Mr Mahmood:

“Heinz have so far not put anything on the table as to what they want but this is a further indication to them that we are prepared to support the workers of HP. What we have said to Heinz is that the plant is efficient but that if it is not running as Heinz want, what do you need to make it even more efficient?”

Next week, Heinz executives will also learn the result of aid discussions with city council chiefs and regional development agency Advantage West Midlands. The talks between Heinz and minister McCarthy are especially important as any financial assistance would require clearance by the Government due to EU restrictions.

Unions meanwhile are set to lobby the city’s MPs. TGWU regional secretary Gerard Coyne has stated that union leaders are seeing pledges of support from every single Birmingham MP in order to help raise the campaign’s profile nationally.

If you have any of your own stories or photographs from this weekends rally that you’d like to share, please write me and I’ll post it to the site.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 05th, 2006 at 9:12pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.