Ford is heading for a clash with its workforce after union leaders failed to persuade the group to drop plans to halt car production at its Dagenham plant in Essex.

Union officials have called for a meeting of the plant's 7,000 employees on November 15. Strike ballot papers will be sent out on the same day.

The unions fear that if the company closes the assembly unit at Dagenham other Ford plants in Britain would face the same fate.

No progress was made during yesterday's three-hour meeting in central London between union officials and the company team led by David Thursfield, president of European operations.

Tony Woodley, chief car industry negotiator for the Transport and General Workers' Union, said Ford had not accepted "the sound case" to keep the plant going. "They intend to break agreements they have made."

When the strike ballot result is known, probably at the end of the month, the unions will seek a meeting with Ford and the government to discuss details of assurances given by the company about job levels at its other UK plants, he said.

The unions claim that Ford promised that the new Fiesta would be built at Dagenham. Ford has since announced that the car will be made at its Cologne plant in Germany.

The car maker said in May it would halt production at Dagenham during the first quarter of 2002 but would expand the diesel engine plant on the site. Since then it has reduced planned redundancies from 1,900 to 1,300 and reiterated its intention to maintain Dagenham as the largest industrial site in the London area.

Ford also faces problems at its Jaguar plants in the Midlands, where workers have rejected a two-year, inflation-busting pay deal covering 4,200 hourly paid employees. The workforce is thought to be opposed to the deal because it offers of extra money to team leaders on the shop floor.