An announcement is expected on Wednesday morning

Workers at Wedgwood, based in Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent, are bracing themselves for an announcement on Wednesday.

Sources at the company told the BBC's Midlands Today programme that they are expecting Wedgwood to cut at least 700 jobs when it publishes its annual figures.

Staff at the firm's Eagle plant said they had been called to a meeting on Wednesday, where they have been told to expect a big announcement.

The Ceramic and Allied Trade Union (Catu) has confirmed it will be making a statement on Wednesday morning.

The ceramics industry has long been in decline.

In the 1970s there were more than 50,000 pottery workers who were union members, but by 2000 that figure had halved.

In the last five years alone thousands of jobs have gone at potteries across the Stoke-on-Trent including at Waterford in November 2001, when the firm laid off 1,400 people.