Job losses at Ford van plant
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• L p to 30 workers are to take redundancy at Ford's Transit van assembly plant near Southampton. Jobs will also go at Dagenham and Halewood, where Fiesta and Escort vans are produced.
The cuts are part of a nationwide programme in which Ford hopes to cut up to 1,000 van and car assembly jobs by March. Ford says that the cuts are the result of "efficiency improvements agreed with the unions", and are not linked to the recession. It will continue to produce 370 Transit vans a day at Southampton.
"The union response has not been exceptional," says Ford. "This is part of a continuing programme over the past 1012 years linked to improvements in efficiency." The redundancies are voluntary; most of those going are aged over 50; some of them are taking early retirement.