KEETCH MEETS TRELLEBORG WORKERS

3.52.49pm GMT Mon 9th Feb 2004

Local MP Paul Keetch has met with 90 workers from a factory in Ross who are threatened with redundancy.

Mr Keetch met the workers from the Trelleborg plant on Saturday 7th February and is to put their case to senior managers of the company, who have agreed to meet him on Friday.

"This is a desperate situation for all those involved," Mr Keetch said. "The employees I met on Saturday made a very powerful case, and I will put that case as forcefully as I can to the senior management when I meet them.

"Unfortunately if a private company is absolutely determined to close down a site for business reasons then there is really nothing that can be done to prevent them. I will try and convince the company that they are making the wrong decision, and if they cannot be moved then try at least to get assurances that anyone losing their jobs will be properly looked after.

"All that I have been told makes me think that this is a successful factory, and that there is a strong case for keeping it open, but that decision unfortunately rests solely with the company itself. I hope that the management will listen to the arguments that the workers are putting, but if not then they have a duty of care to all those that have served their company so well for so many years."