The Canadian plane and train manufacturer Bombardier is to cut 7,000 jobs – one-tenth of its global workforce – over the next two years, including 1,350 in the UK.
Bombardier’s Belfast business, one of Northern Ireland’s biggest employers, will be hit particularly hard. Bombardier is reducing the workforce by a fifth; 580 job losses are planned for this year and another 500 next year.
Unions called the cuts a “hammer blow” to the province’s manufacturing base.
Another 270 jobs will go at Bombardier’s train-making factories across the UK, including Derby, its main site, which has just come to the end of a large contract for London Underground. Most of those affected are contractors, with fewer than 50 permanent workers losing their jobs.
Montreal-based Bombardier, which received cash injections from the Quebec state government and pension fund last year, has been struggling to sell its long-delayed C Series passenger jets, owing to tough competition from Boeing and Airbus. The wings and many of the fuselages are made in Northern Ireland, where Bombardier employs 5,300 people.
Of the 580 Belfast posts being cut this year, 380 come from the group’s complementary labour force, which is made up of temporary and agency workers and fluctuates depending on projects. Bombardier’s unionised workforce in Northern Ireland was asked to accept pay cuts last year but rejected them.
The Northern Ireland secretary, Theresa Villiers, said the news about Bombardier was “bitterly disappointing” given its role as a large employer in Northern Ireland. Villiers said she would be in touch with the UK’s business ministry and Northern Ireland’s enterprise minister, Jonathan Bell, to see what support might be available.
Wednesday’s announcement marks Bombardier’s second wave of cuts after the firm axed 1,750 posts in Canada and Northern Ireland last year. The bulk of the latest round of cuts will be in Germany and Canada, but they will be partly offset by hiring in some areas.
Cost overruns on the new C-series aircraft, which seats between 100 and 150 passengers, have been a drain on Bombardier’s finances. Demand for business jets has also fallen. The firm has been hit by the economic slowdown in key markets such as China and Latin America, as well as western sanctions against Russia.
Bombardier said it was finalising an order from Air Canada for up to 75 of the C-series 300 jets. It now has 678 orders and commitments for the series, which is due to start flying later this year with Lufthansa’s Swiss subsidiary. The firm plans to hire more people to support production, including in Mirabel, Quebec.
Its chief executive, Alain Bellemare, said: “We are turning Bombardier around to make this great company stronger and more competitive.”
But the Unite union said the latest cuts, which come on top of about 680 job losses at Bombardier Belfast last year, were “another hammer blow” to Northern Ireland’s manufacturing base, and called on the Northern Ireland executive to set up a manufacturing taskforce.
Davy Thompson, the union’s regional coordinating officer, said: “The Northern Ireland executive needs to redouble their efforts and secure alternative employment for those highly skilled workers who will be made redundant. Invest NI must now commit themselves fully to proactively seeking foreign investment in manufacturing.”
Michael Mulholland, regional officer of the GMB union, called on the executive to hold a high-level meeting to see what can be done to help manufacturing. He said: “These job losses will have a massive impact on the Northern Ireland economy as they will see the loss of well-paid jobs from the local economy. The devastating impact of these job losses in Northern Ireland comes on top of the loss of manufacturing jobs at Michelin and Gallaher’s.”
Michelin closed its Ballymena truck tyre factory in November, with the loss of 860 jobs. Cigarette maker JTI Gallaher also shut its factory in Ballymena, County Antrim, with a similar number of job losses.
Bombardier took $5.6bn of writedowns mainly related to the C Series last year, pushing its net annual loss to $5.3bn from $1.3bn. Turnover fell 9.5% to $18.2bn. Revenues are set to fall further this year, to $16.5bn-$17.5bn.
The company said: “We deeply regret the impact [the job cuts] will have on our workforce and their families, but it is crucial that we right-size our business in line with market realities. We will continue to evaluate all opportunities to significantly reduce our costs, improve our competitiveness, and boost our profitability.”
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