Most of the 156 staff – from a current workforce of 638 – whose jobs are being eliminated at the TRW Automotive brake systems factory in Pontypool, Wales, will have gone by the end of this year and the rest will leave during 2006.

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Announcing the cuts, plant manager Steve Stott said: “These reductions are essential in order to align employee levels with our volume of business. The automotive industry is highly competitive and we must ensure that we have the right cost base. This is a difficult decision but a necessary one in order to improve our competitiveness.”


Consultations with the workforce have started and the company is looking for redeployment opportunities within TRW’s other operations as well as asking for volunteers for redundancy.


“Given the number of jobs at risk of redundancy, however, it is likely that we will need to move into a compulsory programme,” Stott added.


A spokesperson for the Welsh Development Agency said: “The WDA will continue to assist the company to see how we can help them going forward.”

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Here in Wales, there are already systems and grants in place to retrain workers both inside and outside a company and these have been administered following the recent MG Rover collapse through the Welsh Automotive Forum Task Force.


TRW sources said they hope to raise productivity at the plant which would allow them to compete for more contract work in a couple of years, and that 2006 would be very important for them.


TRW is the world’s biggest manufacturer of ABS systems and the third largest brakes maker. It supplies 40 vehicle manufacturers from 24 plants in 13 countries that employ 60,000 workers.


Recently, TRW announced two plant closures in the United States and one in Spain but it has also opened a joint venture in China to supply local automakers and an R&D centre in Poland.


Robin Roberts


156 jobs to go at TRW brake factory