Ford is planning on reducing the workforce at its Bridgend engine facility by over 1,100 by 2021, according to a leaked document.
Prime Minister Theresa May told MPs at Prime Minister’s Questions that the company is “an important investor” and that the UK “now accounts for around a third of Ford’s global engine production.” The PM added that the government had “had dialogue” with Ford to find ways to resolve the crisis.
The move would leave just 600 workers on the site, which has been a fixture in the Welsh town since the early 1970s, as work looks set to dry up. The plant currently manufactures around 655,000 engines per year, but contracts are due to end shortly and there is only guaranteed work for 125,000 in the future.
According to the leaked document, the plant is underperforming compared to other Ford engine sites, including at Dagenham in Essex. Overtime levels at the Welsh site are, allegedly, more than double the rates of Dagenham, adding 6% to the cost of the engines produced. This is attributed to absence, non-performance and work practices including paying staff allowances they are not entitled to.
Jeff Beck of the GMB Union called the news a “nightmare”, adding that “this is a real kick in the teeth for our hard-working members at the Ford plant. These are good jobs which are vital to the economic health of the area. Our first priority is to defend our members’ jobs.”
Beck also confirmed that the union will be in communication with Ford, while members of both the Welsh Conservatives and Plaid Cymru have called on First Minister Carwyn Jones, who is currently meeting with GE Aviation in Washington DC, to fly to Detroit to meet with Ford senior management.
“The First Minister must now drop any engagements he has in Washington and travel straight to Detroit to speak with Ford executives and seek assurances over the Bridgend plant’s long-term future,” said Russell George, economy spokesman for the Welsh Conservatives.
Ford have, as yet, refused to comment on the news.
