General Electric to cut 369 jobs at Nantgarw site
General Electric will cut 369 jobs at its engineering plant in Nantgarw, it has been announced.
The news comes on the back of 180 posts going after the company recently opened a voluntary severance scheme for workers at the site.
The cuts comes as there were job cuts at British Airways in Llantrisant and other Welsh sites, and the announcement of redundancies at Airbus in Broughton in north Wales.
Mick Antoniw, MS for Pontypridd, and Member of Parliament for the area, Alex Davies-Jones, said the news is "absolutely devastating for the employees and the whole community. It is particularly distressing that the majority of GE’s UK job cuts will fall on the Nantgarw site."
They added, “We will continue to work with Unite the Union and GE management locally to do everything we can to ensure that as many jobs as possible are retained for the future and to support those who have lost their jobs in any way we can.”
Unions reacted with "extreme disappointment" at the announcement with Peter Hughes from Unit Wales saying, “Today’s news from GE is further devastating news for Welsh workers, Welsh manufacturing and the Welsh economy. GE is yet another of Wales’ flagship employers that is shedding hundreds of high quality jobs whilst the UK Government watches from the side-lines.
General Electric, who maintain aircraft engines, begun consulting with the 1,400 employees in May as it planned to cut a quarter of its global workforce by a quarter.
It said they are speaking with every Welsh employee and hope it will be done via a voluntary redundancy basis.
The aviation industry has suffered a huge blow as a result of coronavirus travel restrictions.
As a result of Covid-19, around 70% of passenger fleets were grounded in April.
Earlier this week, Ineos said it is reviewing its manufacturing plans of building its new 4x4 Grenadier vehicle in Wales which would have brought 500 jobs to the area.
The announcement was described as a "glimmer of hope", after Ford said it would be closing its Bridgend engine plant, with the loss of 1,700 jobs.