ANOTHER jobs blow hit Burnley this week as Tenneco-Walker (UK) announced 69 redundancies - a quarter of its workforce.

The car exhaust manufacturer, which has been in Burnley for 26 years, is restructuring its European operations and is transferring all its UK after-market and service product lines abroad.

Bosses hope that many of the redundancies will be voluntary, but unions are still trying to get the total number reduced.

Workers at the Liverpool Road factory have known for weeks that sackings were likely, but how many was not known until an announcement on Monday.

Staff were said to be very upset, as they believed there was a possibility of work being transferred from other plants. The company has factories in France, Germany and Scandinavia as well as the UK.

The blow follows cuts at Prestige and Hurel-Dubois, where 90 redundancies were announced last month. Unions are trying to get that figure reduced too.

Negotiations are continuing at Prestige, where there is believed to be the chance of retaining a few jobs after the firm's new owner, Hong-Kong- based Meyer, transfers production abroad.

A statement issued by Tenneco-Walker says: "Although these changes may be difficult in the short term, ultimately they will enable Tenneco-Walker (UK) to provide higher levels of service to customers while establishing a solid foundation for future business growth."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.