From the SMH "Drive" Section Friday 16 August 2013.


Holden still plans to make cars beyond 2022: Devereux
Sam Hall
Published: August 16, 2013 - 10:11AM

Holden boss Mike Devereux has described his Victorian workforce’s crucial vote on a revised bargaining agreement today as “one step in a long process,” as talks between the car maker and either side of government continue to intensify.

During a candid interview with Fairfax Media, the British-born and Canadian-raised Devereux also delivered an impassioned case for Australians to continue supporting the manufacturing industry.

Remaining workers at Holden’s Victorian premises are expected to accept a new enterprise agreement today which adopts a three-year wage freeze and revised working conditions. The changes, which were endorsed by Holden’s Adelaide-based employees on Tuesday, will help the company achieve $15 million in annual savings.

The ballot comes amid on-going talks between Holden and both sides of government in the lead-up to the September 7 election.

Devereux, speaking during a product launch in Victoria, said workers accepting variations to their enterprise agreement would hopefully precede successful funding to shore up Holden’s future.

“We have a plan and our plan involves making things past 2022 - that’s our stated desire,” Devereux said.

“Friday’s vote result is a step in that process, and the next step is long term certainty on government policy, because in order for us to invest $1 billion, we need to understand what the plan is.”

Devereux said he had been “laser-focused” on talks with government in the hope Holden could proceed with a multi-million dollar investment in its production facilities.

“We need to have a relatively good amount of certainty that a policy is a policy,” Devereux said.

“I do know that our current plan is to do some metal works in the body shop over the Christmas shutdown period, to prepare the body shop for the new models. That will require a few million dollars in investment and it would definitely be our preference to have that funding certainty before then.”

Devereux was measured in his assessment of negotiations between either side of politics, giving no indication of how the car industry would fare under differing policies.

The Holden boss also defended a perceived “handout nature” of funding the car industry relies on to survive.

“When people are negative towards assistance, it’s not that they’re unintelligent, it’s just that they haven’t had the argument presented to them properly,” Devereux said.

“The levers that this country pulls are not monetary and they’re not trade-based tariffs, so they become quite simplistic and distasteful to some people because they’re so blatantly visible in the form of per unit assistance.

“This country just has to decide… It’s the industry of industries in terms of multiplier effect and basic skill level across metal, metallurgy and sophisticated logistics … there’s a huge amount of skill sets that people don’t initially see.

“The industry is the single-biggest R&D investor in this country. It imports massive amounts of engineering talent and when that goes away, the country that it has happened in irrevocably change.

“I will sit down with both sides of government and educating them, and then they can do what they think is the right thing

“I hope the answer is that we should make stuff.”

Devereux also confirmed that Holden’s SS Chevrolet export program to the US would be underway shortly, with the first batch of vehicles recently rolling off the car maker’s Elizabeth production line this week.



This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/drive/motor-news/ ... 2s0l0.html