Workers staging a sit-in at a car components factory are having talks with Gerry Adams, the Sinn Féin president, who is visiting the plant in his West Belfast constituency this morning.

The 80 disgruntled workers began their sit-in yesterday after Visteon announced that it was closing its factory, in Finaghy Road North, with the loss of 210 jobs.

Mr Adams said that there was a determined mood among the workers at the plant. Ford had acted “disgracefully” by offering minimum redundancy terms. “They spun off this company ... but Ford continues to control the product. Ford was Visteon’s only customer,” he said

Mr Adams said he was concerned about the loss of skilled jobs in his constituency and would be speaking to Ford senior management in America today.

Gary Baxter, one of the Visteon workers, said this morning: “I’ve really enjoyed the eleven and a half years that I’ve worked for the company, they’ve been very decent up to now, there’s been no bad feeling, it’s always worked very well.

“This is a difficult time; I’ve been here for 24 hours now.”

The workers say that they will not leave the Belfast plant, which was previously owned by Ford, until they get assurances over redundancy packages.

Davy McMurray, of the Unite trade union, said that Ford had a "moral responsibility" to the workers, who should benefit from the carmaker's redundancy packages.

KPMG, the administrators, said it had no alternative but to close the factory and two others at Basildon in Essex and Enfield, North London. Representatives from KPMG also spent the night in the Belfast plant.

Visteon, which took over the Ford plant in West Belfast in 2000, has a workforce of 600 across the UK. Most of the 565 jobs that are going have been lost with immediate effect.

The company said that the remaining employees would assist the administrators in "the orderly wind down of the business".

It added that the UK business had not been profitable "since its incorporation in 2000" and that Visteon UK's reported losses totalled £669 million.

John Hansen, the joint administrator, said: "The entire automotive supply chain has been under pressure for a number of years."

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