Bombardier to make another 490 job cuts in Northern Ireland

  • Aerospace and transportation company Bombardier announced another devastating round of layoffs in its Northern Irish operations yesterday, with the loss of 490 high-quality jobs scheduled to take place early next year.

    The past few years haven't been kind to Bombardier's manufacturing plants throughout Northern Ireland, with 220 job cuts in 2015 attributed to a drop in demand for private jets, another 630 in 2016 as a cost-cutting measure, and 375 cuts announced last year. The firm currently employs about 4,000 workers across Northern Ireland.

    Bombardier warned earlier this month that it would have to find additional efficiencies and cut costs in order to stay competitive, planning about 5,000 layoffs worldwide. Yesterday the firm confirmed that 490 jobs will be cut in Northern Ireland as part of the push to reduce the production cost of its Airbus A220 medium-range jet airliner (previously named the Bombardier C-series).

    The layoffs won't officially go into effect until next February or March and Bombardier does have redundancy programmes for those released, but this will provide little solace to those facing unemployment as we approach Christmas. Though Bombardier cites the need to cut costs to stay competitive, trade union Unite argues that the layoffs are "unjustified in the face of rising profits" as Bombardier announced a 57% increase in profits this year.

    Source: BBC News

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