Merry Christmas from Ford

SIRandyraven | 11:18 Thu 25th Oct 2012 | ChatterBank

14 Answers

"Car maker Ford is to close two plants with the loss of at least 1,300 jobs, the BBC understands.

Its Southampton Transit van factory and the stamping plant at Dagenham, Essex, will shut, with union sources saying the job losses could reach 1,500.

Reports suggest the closures will happen next summer.

However, some new posts will be created at the Dagenham engine plant which will build Ford's new Panther engine."

That's terrible news for the plant workers and in the run up to Christmas.
One would hope the government has fought to retain Ford at these plans ?

Watched a BBC program last week about Ford in the UK and the dizzy days when they had 50,000 employed in the uk.

stinker 83

Exploding jug

Answers

1 to 14 of 14

Best Answer

No best answer has yet been selected by SIRandyraven. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.

For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.

emmie

i heard that on the radio just now, not good is it, and not just because it's near to Christmas

-- answer removed --

DTCwordfan

they were talking about the new engine, the Panther, soaking up 1000 jobs this morning on R4, so this does need putting in perspective a little.

emmie

not much perspective when your job goes to west, and even if there are other jobs on offer, that doesn't mean all will get one.

SIRandyraven

Question Author

The thing is , these are high earning skilled jobs being lost.
You can never replace these jobs with part time positions in B & Q or Tesco on minimum wage.
The spending power of 1,500 people is being wiped off the face of the economy.
This will have a knock on effect in the immediate area of the plants and wider as suppliers are also hit.

dotty.

the problem with redundecies from large manufacturing companies, is the new jobseekers are localised and the same jobs are being chased by candidiates with similar experience, alot of competition for each vacancy that comes up. With retail the redundencies are spread across alot more towns and cities and are absorbed into a wider job search area. for that reason there should be really good counselling and advice from the directgov jobcentres t handle the large increase in local unemployment and local companies should be encouraged to find these workers a vacancy

emmie

perhaps a case of jobs going elsewhere?

http://www.eastleighn...ers-could-go-at-ford/

DTCwordfan

Panther is at Dagenham so that would negate a lot of the impact you refer to Sirandy. The option for the others is to switch to Honda at Swindon as they have recently announced a £270 mln expansion, so these highly skilled workers must be well up the batting order for jobs there - ok that does mean a transfer of secondary wealth out of Essex if that happens to the benefit of Wiltshire and W. Oxfordshire.

SIRandyraven

Question Author

Funny how some people comment that this is bad news and others not so bad , just a movement of jobs to another area in Ford.

Depends how this all pans out , but can't see it being good news for the areaa involved.
Like dotty said

SIRandyraven

Question Author

@DT - Hope that is how it all pans out then.
For the sake of the workers.

emmie

job losses is never good news surely..

DTCwordfan

they thought that Mulally would make a statement on Panther today as well.....has he? Obviously, there are redundancies involved - and hopefully retraining as making an engine is somewhat different to assembling vans, trucks or cars. (The engine pit in Detroit (as well as their Ford 150 truck plant) is amazing to see - and it does show up why the jobs are under threat when there is such automation).