Unite will strive to minimise any losses in Belfast and secure best outcome for affected workers

Latest blow to manufacturing reinforces case for proactive strategic approach to vital productive sector

October 21st: Davy Thompson, Regional Coordinating Officer for Unite expressed his union’s concern following the announcement by Bombardier of plans for seven-thousand five hundred job losses globally:

“Bombardier’s statement threatens seven thousand, five hundred redundancies over and above those previously announced; however, reports from Reuters appear to indicate that two thousand, five hundred of these are likely to fall in the aerospace section of the business.

“We are deeply concerned that these job-losses could affect the Belfast workforce as it is involved in every Bombardier line of production. The job-losses amount to one-in-ten of their global workforce but there is no further information about what this will mean for Belfast.

“Our members can be assured that Unite will work over the coming period to minimise any potential job-losses here and if necessary we will strive to deliver the best possible outcome for those affected. We can only hope that today’s announcement will mean the company is better positioned to achieve long-term growth and safeguard future employment.

“Yesterday our union joined with Manufacturing NI, which represents employers in the sector, to launch a campaign for the Northern Ireland Executive to reverse course and adopt a strategic approach to defending and growing NI industry.

“The scale of today’s announcement, coming on the back of similar announcements over the past two years which have seen us lose six thousand high-value added core jobs in the sector, only reinforces the case for such an approach.

“There is no room for complacency. In the post-Brexit context, the failure to commit to a stand-alone industrial strategy for Northern Ireland is inexplicable. The Prime Minister has committed her government to such a strategy for England, we can’t afford to fall further behind”, Mr Thompson concluded.