Ford job losses concern council leader (From Thurrock Gazette)

Ford job losses concern council leader

7:40am Friday 2nd November 2012 in News

THE leader of Thurrock Council has called job losses at Ford’s Dagenham plant “worrying”.

The car giant announced last week it will be closing its stamping plant at Dagenham next year “against a backdrop of the severe and persistant economic crisis in Europe”.

Ford also announced it is to close its assembey plant in Southampton. Across the two plants, more than 1,400 jobs will be lost.

Many of Ford’s employees at their Dagenham plant come from Thurrock and Cllr John Kent called the job losses another blow to the south Essex economy.

He said: “Coming on top of the loss of jobs at Petroplus, this latest news is really worrying for the local job market.

“Many Thurrock people work at Ford and many others in the supply chain for the plant there.

“Thurrock already has a very close working relationship with the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, sharing a chief executive, for example, and I will ensure we do all we can to work with our partners to provide as much help as we can.”

Ford also announced a new project that will see its “next-generation” engine be constructed in Dagenham.

The low-CO2, two-litre diesel engine, which will power cars from 2016, will be produced at Dagenham and developed at Dunton.

It will support more than 5,000 high-value engineering jobs across the two south Essex sites.