Carmaker Ford has announced it will cut 1,300 UK jobs, a fifth of the workforce, as part of a Europe-wide overhaul as it seeks to reinvent the brand and focus on electric vehicles, media reported. British.
Most of the losses will be at Ford’s Dunton, Essex facilitywhere up to 1,000 jobs will be eliminated.
The remaining 300 will correspond to administrative functions distributed among the company’s five centers in the United Kingdom.
This decision is part of a restructuring plan at the European level to eliminate 3,800 jobs in the next three years.
Ford stated that this reduction is due to the transition to fully electric vehicles and the lower complexity of the vehicles.with the goal of having an exclusively electric fleet in Europe by 2035.
Martin Sander, general manager of Ford model in Europe, explained that these measures are made to “compete and win in a highly competitive region that faces significant economic and geopolitical headwinds.”
The company said it will contact unions and worker groups across the continent to reduce the number of employees through voluntary layoffs.
The company stated that it will contact unions and worker groups across the continent to reduce the number of employees through voluntary layoffs.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Unite union for the automobile industry sector, Des Quinn, declared that the union will require the company to open the accounts to determine how to save the greatest possible number of jobs at Ford.
“Unite will demand that the company open the books to determine how to save as many jobs at Ford as possible. In the meantime, it is clear that the Government has no industrial blueprint for the successful electrification of the UK automotive industry. and the crucial jobs it supports,” said the union leader.
He said the UK is falling dangerously behind competing nations, whose governments have had the foresight to pursue a strategy for the production of green vehicles and green transport networks.
“One need only look at the state of the UK gigafactory plans, which are absolutely necessary for the future of the sector: Volt’s iconic UK plant descended into ignominious collapse, and its future now depends on an Australian company due to to the government’s fatal worship of the market,” he added.
“The time has come for action and ministers must come up with a comprehensive industrial strategy to ensure safety and investment in the UK automotive sector,” he concluded.
