Comprehensive strategy and support package needed to avert huge job losses and severe damage to the Northern Ireland economy.

Recent losses of 1,500 aerospace jobs estimated to have lowered national output by half a billion and reduced household spending by £50 million

New research commissioned by Unite and undertaken by Acuity Analysis highlights the importance of Aviation and Aerospace currently threatened by the inaction of both Stormont and Westminster in the face of a sharp global downturn in the sectors caused by the Covid crisis.

Echoing the call by his union, Unite, at the launch of their campaign demanding a national aerospace taskforce to save the industry Jackie Pollock Regional Secretary said,

“Aerospace makes a colossal contribution in terms of jobs, economic output and demand; if we lose this world-class sector it will punch a huge hole in the Northern Ireland economy. Together Aviation and Aerospace generates billions in output and supports tens of thousands of high value-added union jobs.

“In the face of the unprecedented Covid downturn to this critical, high-skilled industry, the foot-dragging of governments in Stormont and Westminster is threatening catastrophic job losses. If you look at Germany and France, they have brought forward huge investment programmes to sustain aviation and aerospace, by comparison to which the support offered by the UK government pales into insignificance.

“Research commissioned by ourselves with Acuity highlights that Northern Ireland’s aerospace cluster comprises 220 companies employing around 10,000 people. That means that despite having just 2.8 per cent of the UK’s population, Northern Ireland is home to over 8 per cent of the UK’s aerospace companies and 10 per cent of aerospace employment. The sector directly generates £1bn in output (gross value-added) annually and contributes more than £2bn to Northern Ireland’s entire manufacturing output.

“Aerospace jobs are high value-added and tend to be unionised, and therefore better paid. The research confirms a large Aerospace premium amounting to an additional £11,000 per year for each worker. These are not jobs easily replaced – they must be defended.

“In recent weeks we have unnecessarily lost more than 1,500 aerospace jobs. The research estimates that these losses alone, and their impact in the wider supply chain, will reduce national economic output by half a billion and cut household spending by more than £50 million and that’s before accounting for loss of taxation or social security payments for each redundant worker. For every job lost at an aerospace company like Bombardier, three more are lost within the supply chain; the damage from these avoidable losses will be long-felt and reflect the cost of continued inaction and political failure.

“The additional impact for Northern Ireland and for the UK from the combination of the aviation and aerospace clusters must also be considered. Both sectors are highly interdependent and their proximity in and around Belfast generates significant spill-over effects, in terms of employment and economic output.

“The Stormont Executive must help secure the establishment of a national aerospace taskforce by the London government. We also need to see an Aerospace rescue strategy for Northern Ireland; unions and the aerospace industry must be involved in delivering a detailed programme for the sector to survive, rebuild and recover. In recent days, we’ve heard a lot of talk about innovation and government intervention but very little action; the bottom line is that with every day that goes by without government intervention, aerospace jobs become more and more vulnerable.”

Unite workplace reps and officials will be meeting with Economy Minister Diane Dodds where they will raise these concerns directly.