Ford unions in Volvo plea

Ford employed 8,000 people at Dagenham

Union leaders from Ford's largest UK plant are to urge the car giant's bosses to reverse plans to end car production there.

The unions will urge Nick Scheele, chairman of Ford Europe, to build other models at the huge Dagenham plant in Essex.

Our campaign to save jobs at Dagenham will continue because we believe there is still everything to play for

Sir Ken Jackson, AEEU

Ford's current plan is to stop making Fiestas from 2002, instead building engines only.

But union officials want Ford to consider replacing the Fiesta with Volvo or possibly Mazda cars.

Ford is scheduled to move production of a new Volvo to Belgium from Holland following the ending of a joint venture with Mitsubishi.

Reorganisation

This will create 1,800 new jobs in Belgium, the same number of jobs which will be lost at Dagenham.

Sir Ken Jackson, general secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union said: "Our campaign to save jobs at Dagenham will continue because we believe there is still everything to play for.

"Dagenham is well placed to build new Volvos."

The halt in manufacturing followed a reorganisation of Ford's European operations.

The unions, however, say the real number of redundancies is closer to 5,000 because Ford's numbers do not include job losses with caterers, cleaners and suppliers.

Dagenham's assembly plant was built in 1931, and has been running far below capacity, producing 191,000 vehicles last year.

Ford has also cut 2,000 jobs each in Germany and Belgium in the past 18 months. On Friday it also announced the closure or sale of production facilities in Portugal, Poland and at Minsk in Belarus.