The company, which employs 5,000 aerospace workers in Northern Ireland, as well as 3,400 rail staff across the UK, announced a separate cut of jobs earlier this year. That particular round of job losses affected 1,350 UK workers, and fears are that this second wave will have a similar impact.
Alain Bellemare, Bombardier’s CEO, said the latest round of cuts would “ensure we have the right cost structure, workforce and organisation to compete and win in the future. We understand these difficult decisions … but in the end we will be left with a leaner, stronger organisation.”
The company’s site in Belfast manufactures wings for the C Series passenger jet, orders for which have struggled against the market dominance of Airbus and Boeing.
The GMB Union in Northern Ireland reacted to the news by saying it would look to lobby the country’s government in Stormont. “This announcement is additional to the previous redundancies and it is not yet clear what the impact is likely to be for our members in Belfast,” said Michael Mulholland, the GMB’s regional officer. “Our intention at this stage will be to engage with the executive at Stormont once details are clearer, with a view to putting support measures in place and look at ways they can bolster what is becoming a sector under severe pressure.”
