WORKERS at a TV parts factory have spoken of their devastation after it was announced 70 jobs are to go.

But the boss of the LG Philips Display plant in Blackburn said that the future of the plant is not in doubt even after the workforce was cut to 250 to ensure its viability.

The news comes just eight months after it was announced 150 jobs would be cut at the Philips Road site.

The plant employed 6,000 in its heyday in the 1960s. A 45-year-old worker leaving the plant, who has worked there for 17 years, said: "The morale is as flat as anything and has been for some time.

"People don't expect the plant to be here much longer."

However, plant boss Phil Brown said the measures should make the plant become profitable.

He said: "These are always difficult times for an organisation.

"Its never easy to be releasing people who have worked hard for the company for a long time. We hope with these measures we that we get to a point in 2004 where we are a profitable organisation which secures our future."

It is hoped that the 70 redundancies will be taken up voluntarily between now and July 4. If, after that period, the allocation has not been taken up, compulsory redundancies will follow. Union bosses said the plant had suffered a particularly bad year for sales because there had been no major sporting events in the year, such as the World Cup or Olympics.

Hughie Bruce, convener for the GMB union, which represents 200 workers at the site, was shocked at the number of redundancies, although he did expect some.

He said: "Seventy was a surprise.

"I cannot see 70 taking voluntary this time but they got it before." Worker Sam Motorwala, of Thornhill Close, Blackburn, said: "I am concerned about the whole future of the plant.

"But I won't be leaving unless I have to."

A press operator who has worked at the site for 24 years, said: "Everybody's fed up. People just don't know what's going on."

A 40-year-old worker said: "It's going down hill, it's been going down hill for years.

"Chances are they might be doing it all again."