GKN to axe 450 workers
Engineering giant GKN is axing more than 450 jobs in the West Midlands and closing two factories in the region, it was revealed this afternoon.
Its factories in Aldridge and Great Barr will shut as the company struggles to cope with global economic downturn. Shocked staff at the site in Middlemore Lane, Aldridge, were given the blow at a meeting this afternoon.
They said 100 of 265 workers would get the chance to transfer to the company's other Driveline factory in Erdington, which will take the bulk of the work from the Black Country site.
A worker, who asked not to be named, said: "People are just devastated. It's come totally out of the blue. There are a lot of people who have worked very hard to maintain the quality of what we do here and we all feel very let down."
A second factory, a forging facility employing 102 people at Hamstead in Great Barr, will also close by the end of this year.
GKN said a total of 323 jobs would be lost with the two closures, which GKN says will consolidate work into a single "centre of excellence" at Erdington, where the company already employs 500 people.
Another 150 jobs are being axed at the Hadley Castle factory in Telford, "due entirely to the dramatic and sustained reduction in customer orders," said GKN spokesman Guy Stainer. The firm said it was also cutting 90 aerospace jobs in the UK.
