Unions fear up to 500 manufacturing jobs could go

The Unite union has warned around 500 local manufacturing jobs could be lost with cuts looming at Bombardier and Schlumberger.

Canadian aerospace firm Bombardier is to cut 280 posts as part of a five year plan by the company to reduce costs and improve profitability.

Meanwhile, the US company Schlumberger, who manufacture equipment for the oil industry, has announced it will close its Newtownabbey site, with the loss of over 200 jobs.

Davy Thompson, regional officer for Unite, said they were "very disappointed with this devastating news.

"Only last month management announced ninety-five redundancies and highlights our concerns that the Airbus agreement secured in the last fortnight has not provided any long-term guarantees to Northern Ireland workers," he added.

A statement from Bombardier acknowledged the impact on workers and their families and said they are continuing to explore means to mitigate the number of compulsory redundancies.

"However, we need to continue to cut costs and improve the efficiency of our operations to help ensure our long-term competitiveness," the statement read.

Schlumberger, who employ 205 full-time staff, released a statement on Thursday morning saying the planned closure is only at the proposal stage and they would seek to "mitigate as much as possible the impact on our employees."

A spokesperson said that in the context of a global downturn in the oil industry, revenues had halved between 2014 and 2016 and the company was attempting to reduce its manufacturing capacity.

Susan Fitzgerald, also from Unite, described the impending closure as "a hammer blow for Northern Ireland's manufacturing sector", with the US multinational a key employer in the Newtownabbey area.

A UK government statement said they would continue with Bombardier and the appropriate local bodies "to ensure that any workers made redundant receive appropriate advice, help with training and access to alternative employment so that the Northern Ireland economy will continue to benefit from the contribution of these highly skilled workers.

"We believe that the partnership agreement between Airbus and Bombardier will give Belfast a stronger future as both companies see the C-Series as an opportunity to increase sales and expand production," it concluded.

The UUP's finance spokesman Steve Aiken urged the companies to reconsider their decisions and called on politicians to work together to ensure high-skilled jobs are not lost.

"This should also be a warning to all politicians," he said. "We need to get our priorities right – we need our manufacturing sector like never before and we can ill-afford to lose high quality jobs like these".