GKN workers are planning to campaign for a reprieve for one of the group’s two West Midland factories threatened with closure.

Convenors at the four automotive plants in the region are to meet to draw up proposals to save at least one of the plants which the global giant plans to close in the region.

Mick Forbes, convenor at the Erdington driveshaft factory, said workers had been “disappointed” by the announcement that the group’s forge facility in Great Barr is to close by the end of the year while its chassis factory in Aldridge will also shut by the end of 2010.

GKN also revealed that a further 150 jobs would be lost at its plant in Telford while the flagship Erdington factory would lose 86 jobs due to a dramatic reduction in volumes.

“We are hoping to organise a meeting among the convenors and the national officials and put some plans together to put to the company to see if we can save one of the plants,” Mr Forbes said.

“We are disappointed that the company are hitting the UK in such a way. We are OK here at Erdington, although we are still losing 86 jobs.

“But we are obviously worried about the lads at Hamstead and Walsall. We are losing hundreds of jobs in the UK.

“We are currently on a four-day week and are 60 per cent down on production compared to this time last year.”

All four West Midland plants have been hit by short-time working in the wake of the dramatic slowdown hitting the automotive sector worldwide.

GKN says the Erdington plant – formerly Hardy Spicer – is to be safeguarded as a “single centre of excellence” and will benefit from £7 million worth of investment in the next three years.

Mr Forbes added: “GKN are hoping to make us a centre of excellence in the future but we have concerns about these job losses in the UK.”

The group has confirmed that 102 jobs would go at Great Barr, 264 at Aldridge, 150 at Telford and 86 at Erdington.

The latest cutbacks at GKN are part of a £120 million restructuring programme unveiled by the automotive parts giant in January when the group announced it had cut about 2,800 jobs from its global workforce over the autumn, including temporary, agency and permanent employees.

But conditions in global markets have deteriorated since late autumn, with activity levels down by almost a third in November and December.