Hundreds of Ford car workers were today (Thursday) protesting at their company's London headquarters over plans to cease vehicle production at Dagenham.

Many of them will be bussed in from Basildon, Billericay, Wickford, Pitsea and Laindon.

They will join forces with union bosses and put forward an alternative business plan to save the threatened plant.

The demonstration at Bayswater was going ahead before a union management meeting on the Dagenham proposal which will result in thousands of jobs lost.

The hope is to persuade bosses to honour what they say is a previous commitment that Dagenham would be used to produce the new Ford Fiesta.

Colin Spence, one of those who will be negotiating on behalf of the unions, said that if Ford did not produce the new Fiesta at Dagenham, the consequences would be financial "mass devastation".

Mr Spence said: "What we need is as much support as possible from as many people as possible who understand that the loss of car manufacturing is going to have a terrible effect on the whole economy.

"I still don't think people understand the far-reaching implications it is going to cause. It affects everybody that has got some sort of interest within the Essex area and London gateway."

Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for Billericay, Amanda Campbell, will be among those joining the mass lobby.

She said: "Closing down car production will have a devastating effect for Ford UK and its Billericay and Basildon area workers, with 3,800 jobs due to go in Dagenham.

"The loss of so many quality manufacturing jobs in our area will have severe local economy and job repercussions, with many in the community being badly affected.

"Ford has singled out the Dagenham workforce for job cuts simply because it's cheaper to do so in Britain than in Germany."

She added: "We need stronger laws to protect our workers, and I will be supporting our local Ford employees in their fight to save their jobs and community."

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