Ford to rule on Land Rover plant
The future of Land Rover production will be discussed on Wednesday
Workers at Land Rover's plant at Solihull, which employs 8,000 staff, will learn at a meeting on Wednesday whether their jobs are safe.
Ford, which bought Land Rover in 2000, has given management and unions time over the summer to come up with ways to improve productivity and quality.
It warned that production could be moved, possibly to either of the Jaguar plants in the Midlands or Merseyside.
Unions are optimistic the future of the Solihull factory will be secured.
The meeting at the Solihull plant is scheuled to start at 1700 BST(1600 GMT) on Wednesday, and a Land Rover spokesman said it would last from between one hour to 90 minutes.
There can be no half measures... we are talking about the future of the plant
Mark Fields, Ford Europe
Ford mulls Land Rover fate
Senior European executive at Ford, Mark Fields, had originally given staff and management from May to work out a plan for the way forward.
Last week the deadline was extended by an extra seven days, after Mr Fields was "encouraged that the team clearly recognised and defined the competitiveness gap that must be bridged".
He had initially warned that, unless they came up with a workable "roadmap", investment in the Solihull factory could be cut and eventually it might close.
Mr Fields will meet managers and unions on Wednesday to review the way forward.
Land Rover must become as competitive as Ford-owned Jaguar within three years, and as competitive as other car makers within five years.
"We are talking about the future of the plant, and the team has got to deliver," said Mr Fields.
Optimistic outlook
On Tuesday night, the Amicus, T&G, and GMB unions said in a statement that an interim report on the roadmap had been given to shop stewards.
They said they believed it would "enable us to achieve a successful outcome at the roadmap discussions to be concluded with Mark Fields".
The 8,000 workers at the factory will be balloted on any proposed agreement.
Land Rover said it was also "hopeful of a successful outcome".
Close to 165,000 Land Rovers were sold last year, with the UK and US the two leading markets.
It has already been decided that production of Land Rover's Freelander model will be moved to Halewood, Merseyside, in 2006.