On 31 March 1980, 6,500 workers at the Shotton steelworks were sacked on one of the darkest days for the British steel industry. Six miles away in Broughton, a town in north Wales on the border with England, there is a palpable fear that history could repeat itself.
On Friday morning, workers at the site of the aerospace firm Airbus were left in shock after notices went up on trade union boards on the factory floor informing them of the company’s warning that it could pull out of the UK.
The wing assembly factory in Flintshire employs about 6,000 mainly local people. Generations of the same family have walked through its doors. Therefore, for many, it is not just the loss of a job but of a way of life.
The company has its own football team nicknamed the Wingmakers who play in the Cymru Alliance League. There is a gym used by local people and plans in the pipeline for a new community centre. During the Broughton village carnival last week, Airbus sent apprentices to help out as well as sponsoring local charities and providing the float for the Rose Queen.
The warning in a detailed Brexit assessment by Airbus has brought back painful memories for some of the older community members. When the steelworks closed, many of the men never found work again; whole families were devastated.
Many Airbus workers now speak of a “fight for their future.” Derek Butler, a Flintshire town councillor who worked at the wing production plant for more than 20 years, described it as the “lifeblood” of the community.
He said: “This region was completely destroyed by the closure of the steelworks. We lived through some of the worst times; there was no work, it was totally and utterly devastating. It has taken a generation to bounce back from that. It is unimaginable what would happen if something similar were to happen again. I’m not sure we would survive a second time.”
At the factory gates, David Lawless, 34, was just clocking off the morning shift as a Beluga aircraft took off, heading for the company’s headquarters in Toulouse, France.
He said the news came as a shock and there had been a mixed reaction from his colleagues. “A lot of people are brushing it off and saying it won’t happen, it’s just talk, but the reality is companies are folding before Brexit has even happened. I don’t know what is going to happen here,” said Lawless. “We just need to try and stick together and hope that the government will fight for us.”
Lawless voted leave in the EU referendum but said he did not regret his decision.“I was in two minds. I wanted to leave but obviously a lot of people were asking questions before about if we were to leave, how it would affect us,” he said.
“People were saying it would never affect us here because it’s too big a company. I’m still happy I voted for it but I thought we had more of a hold and a footing here in Broughton.”
Meanwhile, Peter Sinnott, 55, who has worked at the site since 1980, said workers had been expecting the news since the Brexit vote. “Once we had a border (with Europe), it was always going to happen,” he said.
“Mr [Nigel] Farage knew the vote wouldn’t affect him either way. It’s every common man it affects. There are young men in there, lads with families and mortgages. It is them who this will affect the most.”
Speaking outside the factory on Friday, Darren Reynolds, the site convener for Unite the Union, said: “This site here employs 6,500 people. It’s key to this area and the north-west to have the jobs that we do. You tell them about the infrastructure of the supply chain and everything around what we do – that comes out of the Broughton plant. However, they’re not giving any answers.”
Reynolds said he had visited Downing Street twice this year to discuss the impact of Brexit with ministers but was not sure they understood the concerns.
For father-of-one Kevin Mullens, the news has been terrifying. Mullens’ father Billy retired from the plant last month aged 62. But Kevin, 34, continues to work there and cannot bear to think about a future without the security it offers.
“I have a one-year-old toddler and this is my livelihood. I have known nothing else since doing my apprenticeship and I have invested my life in the place. It couldn’t get any worse if the factory were to start making redundancies. We would not know what to do.”
• This article was amended on 27 June 2018. An earlier version said the Wingmakers were played in the Welsh Premier League. The team was relegated from that league after 13 seasons, at the end of the 2016/17 season. They currently play in the Cymru Alliance League.
