TYRE bosses have given Scottish Finance Secretary Derek Mackay until the end of the month to present a proposal to save Dundee’s Michelin factory.

Mr Mackay said today that the company had agreed to give him a hearing “in about three weeks’ time” to make the case for an alternative to closure.

It was announced earlier this week that the Dundee site, which employs 845 workers, will close by mid-2020.

Mr Mackay told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “I will be pulling together the best expertise, to put the best possible proposition to Michelin.”

He said he was “open” to providing additional resources, but said Westminster must do the same.

“They’ve said they might revisit the £150 million Tay Cities region deal,” the SNP Finance Secretary said.

“We need more than that. We can’t dilute the city region deal, we need to add to it, and that is my call to them. We’re aware that this task is not an easy one and there are significant challenges to be faced. But we are, as a government, determined to do everything within our power to prevent this closure.”

Unite has produced a flexibility agreement which is designed to mitigate current market conditions in order to ensure the factory’s long-term financial viability.

It was this plan that Unite representatives believed they would be signing off after consultation with the workforce this week. The union had no prior knowledge of the company’s announcement. 

Unite said it had been working on a “flexibility agreement” with Michelin that would see the workforce voluntarily reduce and move to a different shift regime next year.

It would be monitored and adjusted over two years, with no loss of terms and conditions for the remaining workers.

Unite Michelin convener Marc Jackson stressed that “Unite has a viable plan on the table … that can work for the workforce and the company.”

He said the flexibility agreement “takes into consideration the current challenging market conditions, but we have a plan in place to manage this situation over the coming years.”

Michelin said the market for the premium smaller tyres that the factory produces has dropped significantly due to increasing use of bigger cars and cheaper imports.

Conrad Landin is Morning Star Scotland Editor.