BBC News' Colin Blane: electronics jobs' future supposed to be secure

The announcement by the US circuit board maker Viasystems comes less than two years after its optimistic prediction.

It is being described as the worst single jobs cut in the Borders for more than 30 years.

Viasystems' electronics plants in Selkirk and Galashiels will shut as part of a process of cost-saving brought about by the Asian crisis.

Thousands of other jobs have already been lost in the Borders from the rundown of its traditional textile industry.

Rapid reaction force

The government has set up a "rapid reaction group" to help find jobs for the workers being made redundant.

The group will include the local enterprise agency and the Employment Service and will use �1m of government money.

Viasystems worker: Everyone will have to move

Scottish Office Minister Gus MacDonald said he hoped around 500 jobs can be created by encouraging local firms to expand.

Mr MacDonald also urged the company to allow local agencies to use the factories for retraining.

"I hope they will take a constructive attitude towards the use of their factories," he said.

Mr MacDonald said he was "very disappointed" at the outcome of talks to keep the plant open.

He said: "They have made it clear they are not interested in government assistance."

Failure 'admission'

The Viasystems plants have been under threat of closure since the company confirmed last month that it was considering shifting its production facilities to more cost-effective plants elsewhere in the UK and Europe.

Workers say they will have to move

Since then the Scottish Office, local MPs and workers have sought to persuade the firm to keep the factories open.

But the publication on Monday of a �1m government aid package to help regeneration in the Borders has been seen as an admission that these efforts have failed.

The closures will bring job losses in the Borders to 2,000 since May, double the total lost in the previous three years.

In June the Scottish textiles firm which owns woollens manufacturer Pringle confirmed 720 job losses in a shake-up including closing its factory in Berwick with the loss of 280 jobs.

Another 145 posts will be lost in other operations in the UK and Germany.

Dawson International's woollen yarn business Laidlaw & Fairgrieve is also to close its Galashiels factory with the loss of 200 jobs and a further 45 workers will be laid off at its Selkirk works.

In its cashmere and lambswool spinning division, Dawson plans to cut 50 jobs at Kinross.

'Black Tuesday'

Drew Tulley, a member of Borders Council, says the effect on the area will be desperate.

Drew Tulley: This will be Black Tuesday

"This will be Black Tuesday. You cannot throw that number of people on the scrapheap without feeling sorry for them.

"But more importantly it reinvigorates me to make sure we get something for those people to find meaningful work in the future."

Workers and their families say there is little chance of finding other jobs nearby.

Viasystems has been heavily criticised for running down the Borders' factories and attracting �24m of government aid for a new factory in the north-east of England.