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Manufacturing meltdown

Yet another devastating piece of news for the Welsh economy, when it was announced that Dura Automotive would be cutting 270 jobs in Llanelli. This takes the total number of manufacturing jobs lost since April 2006 to 1600, nearly all of them in the Objective 1 region.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the Assembly Government, despite having over 1500 civil servants in the enterprise department, has no strategy to manufacturing cutbacks, apart from closing the gate after the horse has bolted.

It is no longer good enough to say that they are not prepared for further cuts and they need to urgently consult with all major manufacturing employers remaining in Wales to ascertain what can be done to ensure they remain in this country.

I know that decisions for closure are usually made in overseas HQ, as clearly happened with Dura, but with a better early warning system, the Assembly can at least begin to discuss options, such as MBOs, well before any strategic decision is made to close the plant.

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