Bombardier to cut 1,250 UK jobs

Bombardier makes trains at its Derby operation

Train maker Bombardier is to axe 1,250 jobs in the UK as part of major restructuring, company officials say.

About 400 workers will be made redundant at the Canadian-based firm's train refurbishment site in Wakefield.

And 132 staff will lose their jobs when the Doncaster maintenance plant closes next year as part of plans to shed 6,600 jobs across Europe.

However, the UK's last train-making factory in Derby is expected to remain open, but with a reduced workforce.

Nearly 100 jobs will also go at Bombardier's train maintenance depot in Crewe, Cheshire, where the company currently employs 1,129 people.

It's a bad day for manufacturing in the UK TGWU spokesman John Rowse

And about 50 job losses are expected at Derby's Pride Park site, where rail bogeys are built, with the remaining workers at that factory moving to another site.

The company will also reduce its 2,500 workforce at the main Derby plant by 600 in the next 18 months, unless new orders come in.

Short-term contracts will not be renewed and some external contractors will be laid off.

Another 12 posts will go at the company's Ashford site in Kent.

European cuts

The Transport and General Workers Union said workers were relieved that the main Derby site is to remain and be refurbished.

But TGWU spokesman John Rowse said the news of more cutbacks was "a bad day for manufacturing" in the UK.

Factories will also close in Portugal, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden.

In a second round of closures next year, the plants in Pratteln, Switzerland, Ammendorf, Germany and Kalmar, Sweden, will be shut down.

Although the cost of these efforts is high, these steps are essential to maintain our competitive position in the market Paul Tellier Bombardier president

"We will maintain our manufacturing capability in the UK with the Derby Litchurch Lane facility," Paul Tellier, Bombardier's president and chief executive said in a statement.

"The urgency to move now at Bombardier Transportation has been underscored by disappointing financial results in this division in the last two quarters of fiscal year 2004.

"Although the cost of these efforts is high, these steps are essential to maintain our competitive position in the market," Mr Tellier said.

Most of the cuts in the UK are being made at factories and facilities that will remain open, but reduce their staff.

Future concerns

Bombardier said it expects to save C$600m a year in costs once the plant closures are completed.

The plant and job cuts stem from a lack of orders at the rail unit, which has suffered from overcapacity since Bombardier's takeover of Adtranz in 2001.

Tony Tinley, from the Trade Union Amicus, said: "There is quite a sense of relief that the plant is still going to be there.

"But there remains that level of uncertainty because inevitably when there are redundancies announced at the company, people think 'is it going to be me?'

"There is one aspect of the uncertainty that has been resolved but clearly moving forward there are still deep concerns about the future."