Visteon workers pensions rally

Hundreds of workers face losing up to half their pension entitlement after Visteon announced it could no longer meet its pensions commitments.

Unite wants Ford, which handed the plant over to Visteon in 2000, to honour pensions obligations of £350m.

Ford said responsibility lay with Visteon, which is in administration.

A rally marked the first anniversary of Visteon going into administration with the loss of nearly 1,000 jobs in Wales, England and Northern Ireland.

Workers - some of whom were employed by Ford and then Visteon for 40 years - have branded the situation "completely unfair".

Ford's obligations to its former employees were fully discharged and Ford believes there is no basis for resuming liability for benefits transferred to Visteon

Mike Gard of the Visteon Pension Action Group said: "We had hoped that it wouldn't come to this, that Ford would recognise the hard and diligent work that its staff put in.

"We now have men and women considering giving up the enjoyments of retirement, such as holidays, which they worked so hard for, considering selling their homes and buying smaller houses and even returning to work to make ends meet."

Mr Gard said it was "completely unfair", particularly as they had written guarantees from Ford saying pensions would be mirrored when workers transferred over to the Visteon scheme.

"If Ford thinks we are going to go away and accept what's been handed to us, it is sorely mistaken," said Mr Gard. "This is our future. We don't have an option."

Unite National Officer Roger Maddison said: "Ford has now dumped £350m worth of pension obligations onto the hard-pressed British taxpayer. It is a disgrace".