Twinings workers in the North East have joined forces with people in Andover to try to keep their jobs.

Andover Sound exclusively revealed on Monday that the company has proposed shedding 129 members of staff in the town.

It's all so they can move overseas production to China and Poland whilst making Andover the UK manufacturing plant.

They also plan to close their factory in North Shields with the loss of 263 employees.

We spoke to this member of staff there who told us there's still a feeling of shock amongst the workers: "We have always felt that we worked hard enough at getting the production out and always been told that we have done well. People are very sad and unhappy at what's happening.

"Really we want to try and change the minds of ABF in closing our factory and getting rid of so many people in Andover."

A Facebook group set up by staff at Twinings plants in Andover and North Shields fighting plans to close their factories has attracted almost 1,000 members.

People that work or have worked at the factories have been showing their support and criticising the company for their handling of the announcement.

A petition signed by employees at both sites has also been set up on the Prime Minister's website calling for the Government to step in to help.

Meanwhile, the vice principal of Andover College says they will be working closely with Twinings to try and help those put out of work.

They're looking to offer training programmes and workshops so employees can brush up on their skills and be prepared to move into new workplaces.

Martin Simmons from the College says with many of the workers having been in their jobs for a number of years, it can make it particularly difficult looking for employment: "Because they're not used to applying for jobs and they haven't applied for jobs recently, they're not up to speed with it and they're not used to selling themselves.

"They say things like I'm only an X, whereas X will involve a huge number of skills and what we can help them to do is to identify those skills so that they can cross fertilise into other occupational areas."

We still want to know what you think about the proposals to shed 129 jobs from the Twinings plant in Andover. Click below to leave your comments.