Making It and the Mayor
- Jude Brimble
- Mar 21, 2018
- 2 min read
“More than 100,000 Londoners work in manufacturing, contributing billions to our capital’s economy, in industries which create well-paid, secure and high skilled jobs. I am proud to support GMB’s excellent campaign."
Those were the words of London Mayor Sadiq Khan as he signed our charter to support the Making It campaign at City Hall earlier this week.
It was a great event in the capital, with activists from manufacturing in the London Region coming together to listen to - and quiz - the Mayor, alongside Labour MP Clive Lewis and Deputy Mayor of London for Business Rajesh Agrawal.
As always, it was a great debate with important questions from GMB activists relating to food security, technology, sustainable manufacturing and, of course, the impact of Brexit.
The London launch of Making It campaign follows events in Yorkshire, Midlands & East Coast, Birmingham and West Midlands, the South West, and Wales - as we journey the whole country to listen to members and activists and get their input to the campaign.
At its heart, the Making It campaign is about celebrating the huge economic boost manufacturing brings to the UK, and the skilled, secure jobs that it creates.
In fact, GMB's new analysis released in conjunction with the London event reveals that manufacturing employs 110,000 workers in the capital, boosting the London economy by £8.5 billion a year.
Food manufacturing is the largest manufacturing sub-sector in London, employing 24,000 people. Other significant manufacturing strands in the capital include fabricated metal products (14,000 jobs), printing and reproduction of recorded media (10,000 jobs), wearing apparel (6,000 jobs) and computer, electronic and optical products (5,000 jobs).
Among the top manufacturing hot spots around London are Ealing (13,000 jobs with a £765 million boost), Harrow and Hillingdon (10,000 jobs and a £891 million boost), Barking, Dagenham and Havering (8,500 jobs and a £923 million boost) and Brent (8,000 jobs and a £576 million boost).
At a time when insecure work and the so-called ‘gig-economy’ are growing, manufacturing workers are often skilled workers in full-time employment and on permanent contracts. Wages in manufacturing are on average 20 per cent higher than in the wider economy - these jobs are worth fighting for.
We're delighted to have the Mayor’s backing for our ambitious charter to support manufacturing jobs in London, with this diverse sector supporting more than a hundred thousand livelihoods and bringing billions into the capital every year. Find out more at: www.making-it.org.uk
