Unions said today they were seeking an urgent meeting with Peugeot after the French car company announced plans to axe 850 jobs at its Ryton site in Coventry.
Roger Maddison, from Amicus, said: "This is more devastating news for Coventry where nearly 1,400 car manufacturing jobs have been lost in the past year. We have asked for an urgent meeting to discuss terms but we will not accept anything less than the very best packages for our members and no compulsory redundancies."
The Ryton plant, which employs 2,800 workers, produces the Peugeot 206, and last year built around 180,000 vehicles, 60% for export. Peugeot said it would do everything it could to minimise the impact of the cuts. A shift that runs from Friday to Sunday is to be axed in the summer as the company adjusts output to demand.
"Peugeot are cutting production of the 206 by a similar amount at their plants in France but no jobs are being shed there. UK manufacturing must have employment protection on a par with that in the rest of Europe if workers here are to stop being the easy touch they are now when it comes to job cuts," Mr Maddison said.
The factory, which has been building Peugeots since the mid-80s, will return to a two-shift operation, as was in effect there from 1988 to 1999. Peugeot said similar returns to a two-shift system had also taken place at other European factories within Peugeot Citroën.
The Peugeot 206 is one of the best-selling retail cars in Europe, but the company said increasing competition in the small car market had affected sales.
"As a result, Peugeot has to review its manufacturing strategy for the car and adjust its output in line with market demand," Peugeot said.
Louise Beard, the chief executive of Coventry and Warwickshire chamber of commerce, said the announcement had taken a lot of people by surprise, despite recent speculation about Ryton's future.
Ms Beard said: "It obviously reflects falling sales and the age of the 206, but also underlines again the pressures on our manufacturing sector from eastern Europe and Asia ... I know that our local MPs are talking to the company and the Department of Trade and Industry over Peugeot's long-term future at Ryton."
