BOMBARDIER

Another blow was dealt to Britain's train-building industry when Bombardier announced more than 700 job losses across its UK operations. The company's main train manufacturing facility in Derby will bear the brunt of the latest cuts, with 561 jobs going from a workforce of just under 2,000. A further 165 jobs will be shed at Bombardier's train maintenance plant in Ilford, Essex.

The job losses follow 1,360 redundancies at Bombardier's UK train division, 600 of them at Derby, and the closure of three manufacturing and maintenance depots. A spokeswoman for Bombardier in the UK maintained the latest job cuts were a "worst-case scenario" and would only go ahead if it was unsuccessful in winning new export orders from South Africa and Ireland. The Derby plant will run out of train-building work in April 2005 when it completes orders for almost 2,000 Electrostar and Turbostar cars to replace ageing slam-door trains on commuter networks in southern England.

The factory has an order for more than 1,600 London Underground carriages but manufacturing work will not start until 2008. The remaining workers at Derby and Ilford will be employed on refurbishment and maintenance work until the new orders start. "Both are strategic plants and neither is under threat of closure," the spokeswoman added. Union officials criticised the way the announcements were handled from Canada, claiming that staff at the two plants had first heard of their fate on the radio.

Derek Simpson, the general secretary of the engineering union Amicus, said, "This is yet another blow to the UK train manufacturing industry. The country that invented the train will soon have no capacity to build trains for its own tracks unless there is urgent action." Bombardier denied the news had slipped out prematurely, insisting it briefed the workforce at both sites at the same time as the announcement was made in Canada.

The Derby plant is Britain's only remaining UK train-building site. Alsthom, the Anglo-French group, closed its Birmingham Washwood Heath facility in 2003 and moved manufacturing to the Continent, although it continues to carry out refurbishment and maintenance there. Bombardier also announced a further reduction in output of its CRJ200 regional jet, which could have repercussions for its Shorts plant in Belfast.

The latest job losses have been blamed on the Government. An inside source has revealed that the Strategic Rail Authority, the Government's arm which runs the railways, changed the specification for a new train after Bombardier pulled out of the bidding and claimed this order could have saved jobs. Hitachi has been named by the SRA as the preferred bidder for the new Channel Tunnel Rail Link train. But, the Japanese company's train may not meet the specification demanded in tender documents sent to Bombardier, according to a senior worker.

The worker, who asked not to be named, described the new train as "highly-complex." He claimed the Hitachi train does not meet the requirements. He said at least 71 jobs could have been saved had Bombardier won the contract for the new trains. Neil Harvey, spokesman for Bombardier in Derby, said, "We had a specification and, based on that information, we decided not to bid. If we had bid for and won the contract we could have mitigated some of the redundancies." (Source: The Independent)

The Government has condemned train-maker Bombardier for not bidding for a contract which could have saved jobs. The criticism came just hours after the Litchurch Lane-based firm announced that it would be cutting its shopfloor workforce to 300 by April 2006. The Department for Transport said that the company had failed to bid for a contract to supply trains for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link domestic services. The 12 units could have given the company work up to and beyond the start of its next big contract.

It has previously been claimed, by a source inside the company, that Bombardier did not bid for the contract because it felt that it could not deliver a train to the specification required within the given timetable. The brief called for a technologically advanced train to enter service by 2007. Hitachi has now become the preferred bidder for the project, with a less technological train than specified and a delivery date pushed back to 2009.

Sources at the Department for Transport revealed the reasons given by Bombardier for not bidding were that "it was a bespoke train and the small number of vehicles involved". The full extent of the planned redundancies at Litchurch Lane became clear following talks between management and four trade unions. By April 2006, there could be just 329 blue-collar workers employed at the factory. There are currently 1,050 such workers out of about 2,000 employees.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Transport, however, said that Bombardier knew in January 2003 that it could submit a bid different from the outline. She said that, from the outset, the paperwork relating to the train "clearly stated that it was a negotiated process". News that Bombardier could have reduced the threatened redundancies fuelled fears that the company could be planning to stop train-making in Derby and turn Litchurch Lane into a train-refurbishment centre. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph)

For the past two years, the Derby workforce have lived under the shadow of declining workload and the loss of a large order to one of our German competitors last year was a devastating blow to us all. While a succession of small contracts may enable our company to "weather the storm" sadly many of our friends are already aware of the intended redundancies that will take place here. Unfortunately, this situation has a knock-on effect for various supply chain companies who manufacture parts for our vehicles.

With the lack of investment in the railway industry by the Government it is hardly surprising that, as the only train-builder in this country, Bombardier has come under increasing pressure to relocate abroad in order to compete on a level playing field with the likes of Alstom. Many of the current employees of Bombardier Transportation are beginning to wonder if the present shortfall in orders, and the general downturn within the engineering industry, could be the prelude to a tactical withdrawal by the firm from the Litchurch Lane site despite assurances to the contrary.

You may have noticed that once again some of the large workshops on the site are being demolished and the "active" part of the works is gradually becoming smaller. This is exactly the same process that was implemented by former owners of this site ABB Transportation before they sold large areas of land for redevelopment and then relinquished ownership.

For the present, we can only hope that our employment situation will improve and that enough work can be obtained to protect the workforce from more job cuts as the chances of finding secure jobs in this area are very remote. In the ideal world, a large order to take us through to the start of the Underground order in 2008 would be the best news we could receive, but, in reality, most of us feel that this will not be the case, and our thoughts are with anyone who may lose their employment due to the current situation. We are well aware that we may be with them. The lads at Bombardier