TRADE UNIONS are braced for up to 1,500 job losses at Ford's giant Halewood plant on Merseyside and fear for the factory's future under plans to be announced today.
The company is understood to have decided that its new Escort, due to be introduced in 1998, will be built at its plants in Spain and Germany, but not at Halewood.
The decision could have a knock on effect at other Ford sites in the UK, including Bridgend and Swansea in south Wales.
The job cuts will be concentrated on the Escort body and assembly plants at Halewood, with the transmission site largely unaffected, it is believed.
The job losses will affect up to a third of the 4,500 Halewood employees.
Ford refused to confirm or deny reports of job losses last night ahead of a meeting at Halewood today between the firm's European manufacturing chief, Mr David Gorman, and national union officials.
National union officials were not commenting on redundancies before being told officially of the scale of the cutback and the prospects for Halewood's future.
But one local official said: "The potential for disaster is great." He added: "It looks as though Britain will have to import more Ford cars than it makes."