WORRIED Gwent aluminium plant workers should hear if they will still have a job at Newport's Alcan works by Christmas.

The workers were stunned yesterday to hear that 1,000 jobs are to be shed from Alcan's rolled products business across Europe.

Some of those losses will be borne by the Gwent plant - but workers have to wait to find out how many and who will go.

There are fears that many of the jobs could be lost from the Gwent works still reeling from the recent axing of 171 jobs after the foil mill was shut.

Workers heard sketchy details of Alcan's "cost-cutting" plans at a mass meeting in Rogerstone yesterday, with one describing the mood as leaving them with an axe hanging over their heads.

Now Alcan bosses have promised that details of the job cuts from its four businesses, in total employing 52,000, will be known by mid-December.

An Alcan spokeswoman told the Argus: "The jobs will be lost as the company needs to cut costs to adjust to the terrible state of the world economy and make it more competitive in both the short and long term.

"We need to cut operating costs and employee numbers by some five to seven per cent of the total 52,000 world-wide."

She said Alcan Fabrication Europe, which employs 12,500 across Europe, has three plants in the UK, rolling mills at Rogerstone, where 594 people are employed, Falkirk, where there are 90 workers, and a recycling plant at Warring-ton, employing 140.

She said each of the four Alcan business units was now "looking at ways to meet the requirements of the cost-reductions programme".

She said the precise number of jobs to be lost at the four plants was currently not available but would be known in mid-December.