Workers at Dagenham are to be balloted on strike action after the company confirmed the ending of vehicle assembly at the plant.

Unions will hold mass meetings at the site on November 15 before workers will be asked to vote on whether to take industrial action.

The announcement followed crunch meetings yesterday (Thursday) between national union leaders and David Thursfield, president of Ford of Europe.

Ford announced last month it would create 300 extra jobs at a new engine plant being planned for Dagenham but ending car production will lead to the loss of around 8,000 direct and ancillary jobs in early 2002.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.