Unions are gearing up to fight plans for a huge cut in jobs at a hospital trust amid fears that the axe will fall on more posts than originally thought.
Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust announced plans earlier in the summer to cut 600 jobs in a bid to save more than £10million.
But Unison said it feared the figure could be as high as 1,000 out of a total workforce of 2,500.
Union officials will meet the Trust on Monday and expect to be given more details of the cost cutting proposals.
Brenda Lloyd, Unison's branch secretary, said: "How can they hope to provide good health services to people in this area with this level of cuts?"
Unions will ask the Trust to seek volunteers or offer early retirement rather than make compulsory redundancies.
Unison said it will also call on the Trust not to go ahead with appointing two new directors on salaries of £76,000 each because the union said it would be a "slap in the face" for workers facing redundancy.
Union leaders said that if a formal consultation on redundancies is launched in the next few weeks workers could be losing their jobs just before Christmas.
Terry Cunliffe of the Unite union, said: "We will not co-operate with any compulsory redundancies."
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