THE axe fell on 310 jobs at Newport's Alcan plant yesterday - the latest blow in a year when 5,000 jobs were lost in Gwent.

Workers and union leaders reacted angrily to Alcan's announcement yesterday that it is axing more than half its workforce at Rogerstone.

The multi-national company blames the 310 job cuts on its £14m losses in its aluminium rolling business at the Rogerstone plant.

It will be a body blow for an area still reeling from more than 4,700 job losses in Gwent in 2001.

Some of the Alcan job cuts will be achieved voluntarily but many will be forced to quit their positions.

The first 110 jobs are to be axed by the middle of next year and the rest, 200, will have gone by January 2003.

The news has been blasted by unions and workers leaving the factory yesterday condemned the timing of the announcement - just three weeks before Christmas. Mill technician Stephen Barraby, 47, of Rogerstone, said: "This is a blow that I feel will be hard to recover from. The timing is awful, what a Christmas box this is! Ultimately I think it's the end for Alcan here."

*PICTURED: Alcan workers go into the meeting where they were told of the job losses.