Merry Christmas from Ford

[SIRandyraven]

"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.

[emmie]

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

[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]

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]

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]

@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).

[stokemaveric]

thats the way of the world redundancies happen..

[SIRandyraven]

As they say
"Our employees are our biggest asset. First thing we sell when the going gets tough :-)"