Union boss David Matthews today vowed to fight to keep as many Bradford & Bingley staff jobs as possible following the vote to turn it into a bank.

Mr Matthews, general secretary of the Union for Bradford & Bingley Staff, is to hold talks with senior management at the Crossflatts company to make sure jobs are secured.

The talks follow yesterday's watershed vote in which an overwhelming number of the B&B's two-and-a-half million members voted to turn the building society into a bank.

In time they will receive windfalls of around £1,000 and share dividends.

But the 2,500 people who work for the B&B in the Aire Valley fear there could be job cuts if the building society is taken over by a larger bank.

Mr Matthews said: "The union was very disappointed with the vote because we support the mutual status of the Bradford & Bingley. But we are pleased that the B&B board have made it very clear they will go forward as an independent PLC and we would rather see the Bradford & Bingley maintain it's identity.

"I do not want to speculate on the future of the building society as a bank but we are fighting to protect jobs and help secure the economy of the Aire Valley which is under threat."

Chris Holland, Bradford & Bingley corporate communications manager, said: "No business in this current age can give a guarantee about jobs and neither could we have said that if we had remained a mutual building society.

"In the event of there having to be redundancies we will treat people as fairly as we can. The best chance for job retention is for the B&B to stay independent.

"That is why we are saying this business is not for sale."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.