Marconi workers angry at job cuts.

Byline: By DEAN VALLER and STEPHEN HALLMARK [e-mail]

UNION and business leaders today described 450 job losses at Marconi in Coventry as another big blow to the West Midlands.

The telecoms firm said the move was to improve its competitiveness, but workers were angered at the announcement, which came after a week of speculation.

The group, which has 4,300 staff in the UK said it would merge product units with its regional business organisations.

The 800 redundancies nationally include 180 research and development engineers who had been working on the BT contract.

The shock failure by Marconi to land any work from BT had raised fears that up to 2,000 jobs could be at risk in the UK. However, a spokesman for Marconi said the firm did have a long term future in Coventry despite workers' fears.

He said: "We are taking part of the optical division from Coventry to our Italian operation, but we certainly have no plans to transfer jobs.

"There is definitely a long-term future for Marconi in Coventry. It's one of our main sites in Northern Europe and the work done there on the soft switch will continue."

Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce chief executive Louise Beard said the region had suffered with 850 jobs lost at Peugeot in Ryton, near Coventry, and more than 5,000 redundancies at MG Rover in Birmingham, with an anticipated 1,000 more jobs going in the supply chain.

She said: "So the Marconi news, although it's a different sector, a different industry, is obviously another blow to the economy.

"However, it is different in terms of employees' skills and qualifications and I'm very hopeful they will be back in the job market quite quickly."

Hopes for the future and fury at BT

A MARCONI worker in the finance department, who has been at the company for two years, said he was relieved job losses had not been heavier.

The worker, who is in his 20s but did not want to be named, said: "We have got a strong customer base and I don't think the future is as bleak as some think."

Another employee, who is in his 50s, was not as positive and said he blamed BT for pulling out of the deal with Marconi earlier this week.

The long-serving member of staff, said: "I am not happy about the fact that the papers know before we do.

"If anyone should be taken to issue it should be BT because there is nothing wrong with our work here and it should not have backed out of the agreement.

"People forget that Marconi has served the technological industry well in this country for around 25 years and our expertise should have been used by BT."

CAPTION(S):

GLOOM: Workers arrive at the Marconi plant today to hear the bad news