Ford Motor Group has announced that up to 1,000 members of their workforce will lose their jobs, with the first phase hitting an engine plant in south Wales.

The American car giant said this week that is making cuts structurally and is revising the company’s European operations. The first impact of that blow will hit the giant plan in Bridgend, Wales, which produces the Ford Ecoboost engine and is also contracted to produce engines for Jaguar Land Rover. According to BBC Wales, the redundancies will be voluntary.

Ford’s Bridgend factory currently employs 1,700 people and was recently boosted with investment for the Ford Dragon engine, but that project only employs 500 people.

"It is a devastating blow for our members and their families, as well as having grave implications for the Welsh economy and the supply chain," the Unite union offider Des Quinn told the BBC.

"Unite is fully committed to opposing any compulsory redundancies and campaigning strongly for Bridgend to have a viable future.

"There are a number of factors behind this grim news - the main ones being challenging market conditions for carmakers generally, a lack of a coherent industrial strategy from the UK government and the uncertainty created by Brexit.”

If Ford continues with its job cuts, more than half the workforce in Bridgend could be phased out by 2021.

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