Sacked workers await ballot result

Trefn is reliant on aviation industry orders

Workers facing redundancy at an aviation components firm in north Wales are due to learn the result of a ballot on redundancy terms.

Trefn Engineering, at Llay, near Wrexham, is a major supplier of components to the Airbus wing plant at Broughton, Flintshire.

The workers are trying to save their jobs

Upto 124 jobs at the plant are set to go, after the company announced workers would lose their jobs before Christmas.

But the AEEU engineering union has balloted its members on whether the company's redundancy terms are acceptable.

The firm had expected a boost in production orders, but the events of the 11 September in the US have put paid to such hopes.

Trefn said the job losses announced earlier this month were as a direct result of the global downturn in the aviation industry.

The company, owned by Mayflower Aerospace, has more than 300 workers, divided into three sectors - Trefn Engineering, Trefn Fabrications, and Trefn Metal Treatments.

Commercial aircraft

Trefn Engineering depend on Airbus and Raytheon for its orders.

The company also supplies components to Short Brothers, who make commercial aircraft in Belfast.

The bad news at Trefn has been repeated across north Wales, with more than 1,000 workers losing their jobs in the past two months at firms including Alcoa, Burlington Toiletries and Corning.

On Monday, Meridian Foods at Corwen announced that more than 100 jobs would be lost at its sauce production plant.

Parent company Hazlewood Foods announced it was switching production to Selby in Yorkshire.

Just 17 of the 130 Corwen employees will keep their jobs, but a consultation process between management and the workforce was due to begin on Tuesday.

It is hoped that some workers can be relocated to the parent firm's pizza plant in Deeside.