THE North-East suffered a double blow last night with news that one factory is to close and another is to cut jobs.

Staff at electrical appliance company Electrolux have been told that 35 jobs are to be lost from the company's cooker factory in Spennymoor, County Durham.

Eastman Chemicals has confirmed it is to close its plant in Hartlepool following consultation with workers and union officials.

Seventy-five jobs will be lost when the company closes its co-polyester manufacturing facility in the town and consolidates production at other sites.

Jim Rogers, executive vice-president and president of the company's Eastman division, said: "The decision to close the Hartlepool site was a difficult one because of the impact on the dedicated and highly professional employees we have at the site."

The site manufactures a variety of co-polyesters and as well as transferring production to Eastman's headquarters in Kingsport, US, some production may also be moved to facilities in Malaysia.

Joe Bologna, site manager at Hartlepool, said: "I have been extremely impressed by the constructive support of all employees and the union during the consultation process.

"Unfortunately, we were not able to identify acceptable options other than closure that met Eastman's need to improve its overall global manufacturing structure."

Meanwhile, bosses at the Electrolux plant told staff they were forced to make the cuts due to overproduction.

A company spokesperson said: "Electrolux has had to review manning levels within the manufacturing area and has concluded that up to 35 semi-skilled redundancies across the business will be necessary.

"We will endeavour to achieve this reduction by means of voluntary redundancy, though it will be necessary to retain an appropriate balance of skills within the business.

"Should compulsory redundancies be required, Electrolux will enter into consultative discussions with trade union representatives to determine the best way to proceed."

Union leaders last night called for more support of the region's manufacturing industries.

Gerry Hunter, regional officer for Amicus (The Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union), said: "We are absolutely shocked that we are losing more manufacturing jobs, the industry has been under so much pressure in recent times that we have lost skilled jobs.

"Something has to be done, we are calling for the Government to assist those struggling sectors."