“We have been told that the MoU will be signed on Wednesday,” Andrew Dodgson of the influential workers’ union Unite, which represents Ford workers, told IANS.
According to Mr Dodgson, Tata has agreed to retain the manufacturing base of the two marques in Britain and source the supply of engines and transmission from Britain.
On its part Ford, the American carmaker which owns the iconic British brands, has agreed to plug a “substantial” deficit in the workers' pension fund. “They have either put some money in or plan to do it,” Mr Dodgson said.
Tata has assured Ford that it has no plans to ‘Indianise’ Jaguar and Land Rover. Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata said recently the practise of moulding an acquired company to look and function more like its new parent is a “more Anglo-Saxon” phenomenon, with “an expectation that if you're acquired, you will look like the owner.”
Keep all three plants
Scotching rumours of outsourcing, Mr Ratan Tata is said to have assured Unite that it will keep all three of Jaguar and Land Rover’s British plants at Solihull and Castle Bromwich in the Midlands and Halewood on Merseyside. While Unite represents some 12,000 Ford workers, Mr Dodgson said the total number of jobs at stake could be anywhere between 35,000 and 40,000 when ancillaries are taken into account. Tata was named by Ford as preferred bidders after it beat off competition from Mahindra & Mahindra and American buy-up specialist One Equity. Jaguar said last month that it is “entirely relaxed” about a Tata takeover. “We have shown our new model lines and planned product cycle. The two national cultures appear to fit together very well and Tata is being very respectful about what we are doing,” said Ian Callum, director of design, responsible for  new Jaguar XF and XK model ranges.