Union members at Jaguar today voted overwhelmingly to oppose closure at the Browns Lane plant in Coventry and backed a call for an industrial action ballot.
Shop stewards and members of the Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) and Amicus at Browns Lane voted by 86% to oppose the cuts. Workers at the Jaguar research and development plant in Whitley voted to support them in whatever action they take.
Today's meetings at the Browns Lane, Castle Bromwich and Halewood Jaguar plants will be followed by "sounding" meetings across the rest of Ford UK this week including Land Rover, Aston Martin and Ford Blue Oval facilities and the company's research sites at Dunton, Gaydon and Coventry, the unions said.
Jaguar, part of Ford's luxury car division, announced last week it would stop production at the historic Browns Lane factory, which turned out the sleek E-Type in the 1960s, with the loss of 1,150 jobs. Production at Browns Lane is to be switched to Castle Bromwich in Birmingham.
The unions accused Ford of reneging on a previous agreement to keep Jaguar production at Browns Lane.
Derek Simpson, the general secretary of Amicus, said: "The effective closure of Browns Lane goes against the promises made by Ford for the site to remain the centre for Jaguar production in the UK."
Jaguar has been hit by fierce competition in the key US market, where half its cars are sold. A price war has raged among luxury brands such as BMW and Mercedes as well as Jaguar, which has also been hurt by a strong pound. Compounding the problem has been the craze for sports utility vehicles.
Justifying its decision last week, Jaguar said it simply had too much production capacity - three assembly plants - when it was selling only 125,000 cars. Jaguar sought to sweeten the pill by promising to maintain Jaguar's historic connection with Coventry by keeping its headquarters and some manufacturing in the city as well as announcing new or updated Jaguar models and 300 new jobs at Aston Martin. Under the plan announced last week 310 jobs will remain at Browns Lane making wood finishes for Jaguar models.
