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Workers call for action on jobs Workers call for action on jobs
(30 minutes later)
Workers from across the UK are set to take part in a march in Birmingham to call on the government to do more to protect jobs. Thousands of workers from across the UK are set to take part in a protest march in Birmingham to call on the government to "halt the jobs crisis".
The march, organised by the Unite union, will culminate in a rally in the city centre later. The demonstration, organised by the Unite union, is part of a campaign to press ministers to do more to help manufacturers weather the recession.
Unite chose to hold the rally in Birmingham as almost one-in-10 people in the West Midlands is now unemployed.Unite chose to hold the rally in Birmingham as almost one-in-10 people in the West Midlands is now unemployed.
It wants measures ranging from short-time working subsidies to keep people in work to more state aid for firms. Former CBI boss Lord Jones will be among those taking part.
'Supporting workers' He will be joined by workers from firms hit by the recession, including steel giant Corus and car companies Vauxhall and Jaguar Land Rover.
Workers from Jaguar Land Rover, car component manufacturer GKN and van maker LDV, all of which have made redundancies, are expected to be among those marching to the city's Centenary Square. Call for subsidies
Eighty-eight per cent of the job losses in the West Midlands have come from the manufacturing sector. Unite wants the government to agree to measures ranging from short-time working subsidies to keep people in work to more state aid for firms.
Unite regional secretary Gerard Coyne said that since the recession took hold, 20,000 manufacturing jobs had been lost, as well as thousands more in other sectors such as finance. Tony Woodley, joint leader of Unite, will tell the rally the union's mission is "to get ministers to wake up and act to halt the jobs crisis".
Ahead of the march, a spokesman for the Department for Business said the government was "absolutely focused" on supporting workers and firms through the global recession. He will say: "Our message is clear: workers are not going to pay the price for the bankers crisis.
"We have just announced an increase to the minimum wage, plans to increase the rights of agency workers and an increase in statutory redundancy pay for those who lose their jobs," the spokesman said. "We cannot risk seeing another forgotten generation of young people who cannot find work and have their lives ruined as a result."
We need factories and plants open for when recovery comes because if they go they will be gone forever Tony Woodley, joint leader of Unite
He will tell the rally in Centenary Square: "We need to get money - our money - moving from the banks to industry.
"We need a short-time working subsidy to keep plants open and workers in jobs until recovery comes.
"We need factories and plants open for when recovery comes because if they go they will be gone forever."
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber will say behind the unemployment statistics are people "struggling to pay their mortgages and support their families".
The March for Jobs follows another grim week for job losses, with BT and Legal & General announcing thousands of job cuts and official figures showing a 244,000 increase in unemployment to 2.2 million.
Manufacturing has been one of the worst affected sectors, with redundancies more than doubling in the first three months of 2009 to 67,000, up from 29,000 in January-March 2008.
A spokesman for the Department for Business said the government was working hard to support companies with "real help", adding that its Enterprise Finance Guarantee had received more than £375m of eligible applications while more than 2,000 businesses had been offered loans totalling more than £186m.
The spokesman added that more than 124,000 businesses had gained agreement to defer payment of tax worth over £2.2bn.