A UNION leader has spoken of a "horrendous" week for the North-East manufacturing sector, during which 700 jobs were lost in three days.

Yesterday, LG Philips Displays, on Belmont Industrial Estate, just outside Durham City, became the latest company to make staff cuts when it announced that 92 jobs from its 840-strong workforce are to go by December.

The electronics company's decision follows the loss of 350 jobs at Circatex, on South Tyneside, potentially more than 100 jobs lost at Nissan supplier Johnson Controls, in Sunderland, and 35 redundancies at Electrolux's Spennymoor facility, in County Durham.

A further 75 jobs were lost from the chemicals manufacturing sector when Eastman Chemicals announced it was closing its Hartlepool plant and moving work to the US.

The toll on the region's labour force comes a matter of days before a rally is due to take place in Newcastle.

The general secretaries of three major unions - Amicus, the GMB and the TGWU - will address tomorrow's rally, which is expected to draw more than 1,000 people.

Davey Hall, Amicus North-East regional secretary, said it was ironic that a catalogue of redundancies should be announced in the week of an event that was organised more than two months ago.

"With the loss of 700 jobs in the space of three days, without question, this has been a most horrendous week for manufacturing workers in the North-East.

"It is so ironic that two months ago we planned to have a rally on Friday because at the time we had concerns. But, now there is even greater concern."

LG Philips Displays, which makes television tubes, announced it was spending £3m on equipment for the plant.

David Coppock, plant director, said: "This investment will significantly improve the performance of the plant which, when coupled with the skills and commitment of the workforce, can help us meet production and performance targets.

"While it will lead to a reduction in the size of the workforce, our hope is that we can achieve this through natural wastage and voluntary redundancy."