THE owner of Halewood gearbox maker Getrag Ford wants to axe one of three shifts.

Situated next to Jaguar Land Rover’s Halewood site, the plant makes gearboxes for Ford Transit vans and Focus and Fiesta cars.

About 650 people are employed on machining and production, and the site currently works a three-shift system based on days, nights and lates.

Late last year, the plant shut down for a month over Christmas to combat reduced orders and returned to a four-day week.

Dave Osborne, lead automotive industry negotiator for Unite the Union, confirmed plans to cut shifts, but said he hoped to avoid job losses.

He said: “We met senior Getrag manage-ment, who indicated to us their need to reduce shift work in the plant as a result of falling volumes.

“They have given notice they intend to move to two-shift working in mid-June or the end of June.

“The trade unions have asked to meet shop stewards next week in order to report back the meeting we had with Getrag last week.”

He added: “We do not foresee any job losses.”

A spokeswoman at Getrag said: “We are in talks with the union about a reduction in current shift patterns and the need to align costs to current production volumes.”