HUNDREDS of workers at a massive supermarket distribution centre in North Yorkshire are to be laid off.

Bosses at the DHL Exel supply warehouse, in Sherburn-in-Elmet, have told union negotiators that 550 jobs are to go after supermarket giant Somerfield pulled out of the company.

Union leaders warned that whole families will be put out of work and said the impact could be greater than the closure of the district's mines two years ago.

Economic chiefs have pledged to set up a rapid reaction force to deal with the huge rise in unemployment facing Sherburn-in-Elmet and its surrounding villages.

Coun Brian Percival, head of the council's Economy Board, said: "I was genuinely shocked. I was never expecting it to be so many local jobs. I think it will have a substantial impact on the village of Sherburn."

Brian Anderson, industrial organiser with the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) said workers had been treated "abysmally" by Somerfield.

The supermarket chain sold 171 of its Kwik Save stores last month and announced plans to stop using the distribution centre serving northern England.

He said: "They have reorganised on a purely financial basis so that they can reduce their overheads because we have reasonable pay and conditions.

"This is a cost-cutting exercise by Somerfield and DHL Exel is stuck in the middle."

He said he now fears for the future of 350 workers who will remain at the site during a one-year trial with new Huddersfield-based firm BTTF, which bought the Kwik Save stores.

He added: "There are whole families that work there and it is from a small local area. I think it is on a par with the mine closures because there are so many people from the Sherburn area."

Eileen Scothern, the district council's principal economic development officer, said about 50 per cent of the workforce live locally.

She pledged to form a rapid reaction force - similar to those created after the pits were closed - to help people prepare CVs and search for new jobs.

Meanwhile, at the huge Bishopdyke Road warehouse hundreds of workers are forced to wait out a 90-day consultation period to learn if they still have a job.

Staff said that since Somerfield pulled out the massive workforce has been left redundant, with little work to do.

Carl Ferguson, 19, who has worked at the warehouse for a year said the atmosphere is demoralising.

He said: "Everybody is really down; nobody has any get up and go. It is ridiculous for pretty much half the day people are sitting around doing nothing. There is only so long you can stand it."

Worker Esther Drape, 22, who has been with the company for more than a year, said: "It seems like people outside the company are getting to know more than what we are being told inside."

No one from DHL Exel was available to comment.

Updated: 09:31 Thursday, March 30, 2006