Posted on 04/02/2009 5:44:00 AM PDT by Clive
Bombardier Inc. said Thursday it will lay off another 3,000 employees or 10% of its aerospace workforce by the end of the year to combat falling demand for its business jets.
The reductions are in addition to the 1,360 layoffs Bombardier announced on Feb. 5 amid a slowdown in production of its Learjet and Challenger aircraft.
Altogether, this will mean 1,740 job losses in Montreal and 475 in Toronto, in addition to cuts at its facilities in the U.S., Mexico, and Belfast. While the cuts are largely unionized workers, they also include some management and contractual workers.
The Montreal-based plane and train maker said it expects to deliver 25% fewer corporate aircraft this fiscal year compared to last, when it delivered 235 business jets.
"Business aircraft demand has deteriorated rapidly during the second half of calendar 2008 and is expected to remain weak for the foreseeable future," the company said in a news release.
Severance costs related to the latest cuts, which will come from North America and United Kingdom, are anticipated to total about $30-million.
"There is no doubt that we are going through challenging times," said Pierre Beaudoin, Bombardier's chief executive, in the release.
Bombardier still reported higher profit last quarter as well as for the fiscal year.
Net income climbed to $309-million (17 cents a share) in the fourth quarter ended Jan. 31, 2009, compared with a profit of $218-million (12 cents) in the same quarter a year ago. Revenue also grew to $5.4-billion from $5.2-billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008.
The financial results beat expectations by analysts of diluted profit of between 14 cents and 15 cents a share.
For the full year, profit topped $1-billion for the first time in company history. That compares to $317-million in fiscal 2008. Revenue was up 12.5% to $19.7-billion.
Still, orders at Bombardier Aerospace, the company's aircraft unit, have slowed substantially. The division said it received six net orders last quarter compared to 213 in the same period a year ago. Bombardier Transportation, the company's train division, said orders were down last quarter, as well.
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Layoffs from the company making business jets, who could have seen that one coming? Put this one on Nancy’s doorstep.
So, not only do they lose their workers, so does the Sub Contractors, Sub-Sub Contractors and the businesses that makes all the parts they need to build the aircraft. I hope people out there realize that this situation is going to have a serious domino effect. Same thing with GM & Chrysler going down for the count. There’s going to be more blood than just the Unionized workers on the floor after that fiasco comes to its inevitable end......
Hahahahahaha!
They bought into this class warfare crap and it cost them their jobs.
Oh well. The voted for change and, damnit, they got it!
One other time they had cuts up there one of the workers suspended himself from the ceiling of the shop in full Scottish dress and played bagpipes for hours until they cut him down.
No, I’m not kidding you - I used to work for an American division of Bombardier and we laughed our heads off at it when we heard about it.
Here’s the a snip about it:
Court Releases Unrepentant Bagpipe Protester
TORONTO (Reuters) - A Canadian man who protested mass layoffs by playing the bagpipes high above a factory floor was saved by a little amazing grace this week after a court refused to convict him of mischief.
Daniel McCaig, 25, was arrested inside a Toronto factory one year ago after he hoisted himself three stories into the air on a crane, unfurled protest banners and blasted
out repeated versions of Auld Lang Syne and other Gaelic folk songs. The kilt-clad McCaig, who also took requests from cheering employees during the unusual four-hour serenade, was angry the owner of the factory, transportation manufacturer Bombardier Inc., had moved to lay off about 130 workers.
McCaig, an experienced mountaineer, was eventually plucked from his rooftop perch by police and charged with mischief over C$5,000.
Bombardier said the protest had forced a temporary work stoppage and cost the Montreal-based company C$200,000. An Ontario court, however, allowed McCaig to go free on a peace bond Tuesday provided he did not break out the
bagpipes near the Bombardier plant anytime soon. “I forced them to confront the issue,” said an unrepentant McCaig, who now works as a tow-truck driver. “I wanted to communicate to Bombardier that what they were doing was wrong.”
Despite the advice of several prominent defense lawyers, McCaig steadfastly refused to plead guilty for fear that a criminal record would haunt him for the rest of his life.
His cause was finally adopted by five law students from York University in Toronto who crafted a defense based on
constitutional issues.
Question?
Why do some of you think these workers are more important than other laid off workers???
This is not good.
I’ve been flying quite a few Bombardier Regional Jets recently and I’ve been very impressed. The size and the power are very impressive. They get up quickly even fully loaded (I was on a Minneapolis-Wichita flight that was fully fully loaded top and bottom and the acceleration was fantastic and it got wheels up in a very short length of runway) and are very much more stable in the air than any 737.
Hopefully the slowdown will be short lived - until 0 is deposed or simply stops messing with the market.
Heh, hopefully.
I think it all depends on how successful Zero is at getting people to hate corporations.
One of the reasons Bombardier stays in business, is the cash flow created by selling smaller, corporate jets.
Now that it is a sin to fly a corporate jet, (Unless you are.....), they'll dump the jets they have, and cancel orders for new ones.
It always amazes me.
Who do GM assembly people (union) think buys a Cadillac?
You can only spend money you earn, and if you are not allowed to earn it, (or keep it), it won't be spent.
Where on Earth!!! do they expect this money to come from?
Once achievement in no longer rewarded in the United States of America, there will be no money created.
/rant at the world
Limbaugh loves this kind of company because they make corporate jets. Will 0gabe give them a bailout?
I think the thought process goes: "The government has plenty of money - Bush was just being greedy and keeping it all for himself." ;)
One man, in this photograph, is President of the United States of America.
This is terrible. I am genuinely upset for you, and us all.
Have a good night dear FRiends.
This is awful.
Our empty headed suit has just declared that he is subservient to the monarch of Saudi Arabia. After giving an IPOD to the monarch of England and having his rather odd press secretary say that she wanted one even though she’s had one for five years.
Sometimes I just wanna slap these stupid Americans into current protocol.
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