Bombardier workforce in Northern Ireland led high profile global campaign against US protectionist tariffs

Clear runway for C Series take-off must now bring more Bombardier jobs for Northern Ireland

March 23rd: Unite the union represents the overwhelming majority of Bombardier’s more than four thousands workers in Northern Ireland. At the end of last year it launched the #backBombardierjobs campaign which raised to the global political stage the devastating impact on Northern Ireland’s economy from 292% import duties threatened by the US Department of Commerce.

The union’s Regional Secretary Jackie Pollock, who played a leading role in that campaign, welcomed today’s statement by Boeing indicating they would not appeal the International Trade Commission decision against the tariffs.

“Today’s announcement by Boeing that it will not appeal last month’s decision by the US International Trade Commission makes very unlikely any prospect that President Trump would intervene directly to overturn the decision – as he has in other recent cases. This was our one major concern arising from the decision.

“In effect this means that we have seen off the Boeing-inspired threat to Bombardier jobs from the imposition of punitive US protectionist tariffs on the company’s C Series aircraft. This will come as very welcome news to the entire workforce at Bombardier in Northern Ireland.

“The focus for Unite is now to defend the jobs we have against the threat of outsourcing while proactively making the case for more work to be brought back to Northern Ireland. The C Series has the potential to transform the civic aviation world and the aircraft series is a world leader in many areas – not least fuel economy and its design features. Today’s announcement means that the runway is clear for its take-off.

“Bombardier’s Northern Ireland workforce played a decisive role in raising the international profile of this dispute and its potential to visit devastation on Northern Ireland’s economy – there is a legitimate expectation among the workforce that we must see many more jobs coming to Northern Ireland from future success”, Mr Pollock said.