Hundreds of Jaguar workers and their supporters have set off on a march to protest at the end of car production at one of the company's plants.
The demonstrators, many of them carrying Amicus and Transport and General Workers Union banners, and others demanding "Don't let Ford wreck our lives", started the protest at Coventry Transport Museum in Millennium Place. They are hoping to put pressure on Jaguar's owners Ford and the UK Government to reverse a decision to end production at the city's historic Browns Lane plant.
The cuts, announced in September, threaten 1,150 jobs with manufacturing of the XJ Saloon and XK Sports Car moving to Jaguar's Castle Bromwich site in Birmingham.
Among the crowd was Terry Southern, 60, from Keresley, Coventry. Mr Southern, a former trim shop worker at Browns Lane for 45 years, retired a week before the job cuts were announced.
He told the Press Association: "It's been on the cards since they gave us Halewood (Jaguar's third car production site on Merseyside). Jaguar didn't really need it. It's enforced over-capacity. "Coventry has suffered because of it. I wonder what is going to become of the city following the closure because a lot of manufacturing firms have closed down."
Another worker, who declined to be named, but works in the veneer department at Browns Lane, also expressed his concern despite Ford's announcement that 310 jobs in that sector would remain.
He said: "We've got to support our workforce. We're lucky, we're in the veneer department, but if they can do it in one part of the company, they can do it somewhere else.
"They (Ford) said if they opened Halewood they wouldn't touch Browns Lane but that was a lie." The worker claimed there was still doubt amongst his colleagues because Ford had tried to outsource the veneer department but had not had any offers.
"If someone comes in, I wouldn't be surprised if they sold it," he added.
The Browns Lane workers received support from their colleagues at the Castle Bromwich site at Birmingham, where production will switch.
Shop steward Paul Duffy, 41, said there was no complacency among workers there that they would benefit from the Browns Lane closure.
The logistics worker, from Yardley, Birmingham, said: "You don't take somebody else's losses when it's your gang. The march is a protest against Ford breaking agreements."
Mr Duffy admitted it was "very unlikely" the protest would reverse Ford's decision, but he added: "It's about sending Ford a signal that they can't make decisions willy nilly or break agreements and that we're not going to stand for it. We're dealing with people's lives here."
The car worker said there was real concern about the future for his colleagues in Coventry, particularly among the younger members of the workforce.
