Huge Bombardier layoffs spark anger and calls for action
News that Bombardier is slashing 5,000 jobs — including 2,500 in Quebec — as part of a restructuring plan landed with a thud on Thursday. “The government of Quebec has to take action,” interim PQ Leader Pascal Bérubé says. This “saga leaves more than a bitter taste. It’s catastrophic for Quebec workers.”
News that Bombardier is slashing 5,000 jobs — including 2,500 in Quebec — as part of a restructuring plan landed with a thud Thursday, sparking anger from workers and calls for action by opposition politicians. Arriving for a meeting with Saguenay Mayor Josée Néron, Premier François Legault said he has spoken to both the president of Bombardier and the head of the union. “It’s a sad day, but I assured both we will do everything possible to minimize the number of lost jobs,” Legault said. He said a working committee to manage the transition will meet Monday. He added the government will help workers find new places in the industry. “After all, the aeronautics industry is doing well in Quebec, so the minister of the economy has contacted the owners of other aeronautic companies.” Quebec Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon said on Thursday he had spoken to the CEOs of the top three Quebec aerospace companies “and they are all in a buoyant recruiting mode.” Asked whether the new government’s involvement in the fallout of problems within Bombardier would draw as much criticism as the previous Liberal government’s decision to invest $1 billion in the C Series, Fitzgibbon said the present situation transcended one company. “When we see a situation where intervention is required, I think it’s our job to look at it. Would we be involved in every transaction? No. Our job is to promote innovation programs in the aerospace industry. The least involved we are the better. We’re not just there to put money into companies that should do their own job.” The Bombardier building in Dorval houses the company’s business aircraft’s flight and technical training division. Bombardier is selling that part of its business to CAE. The head of the Unifor union representing 1,900 workers at the Bombardier completion centre in Montreal — where they work on the Global series of planes — says the layoffs represent a worrisome sign for the overall outlook of the aircraft industry.
PROLONGED INSTABILITY
Meanwhile, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers decried the prolonged period of instability the announcement will inflict on 15,000 employees. “My reaction is one of frustration and I think I share that with everyone in the plants right now who work at Bombardier,” said Dave Chartrand, Quebec co-ordinator of the aerospace union at Bombardier. “They’ve announced in a general fashion again, without putting much detail into it, that there will be layoffs in the next 15 to 18 months, that there will be 2,500 in the province of Quebec and 3,000 in Canada, but without saying who, what, when, where. So now you have a workforce of over 15,000 people just in the province of Quebec who all are wondering if I am the one to be affected. It’s nothing to improve the relationship between employer and employee.” The move is mystifying because Bombardier is hiring in some programs and the aerospace industry is suffering a lack of manpower, Chartrand said. With forecasts of 30,000 jobs needed in the next seven years in the aerospace industry, “as a whole I’m not too worried, but my question is, where is Bombardier going with their commercial program? They seem to be getting rid of their commercial series.” With the recent unloading of commercial series of jets, the CRJ series is the only commercial series still being worked on in Quebec, at Mirabel, Chartrand said. Unionized employees have deals in their contracts in which they can be transferred to other departments or to work for Airbus and preserve their benefits and seniority in the event of layoffs, “but I’m concerned for the non-unionized employees,” Chartrand said. Given the massive subsidies Bombardier gets from the provincial and federal governments, Chartrand said certain guarantees to maintain jobs for a certain number of years should have been included. Employees leaving the Bombardier Aerospace plant in St-Laurent Thursday said they had been advised by Bombardier not to talk to the press. Most said they had no information on the coming layoffs. The Quebec association of manufacturers and exporters, MEQ, said it regrets the news, but supports the restructuring and business plan of Bombardier, “which is facing numerous challenges.” The association noted that Quebec and Canada are experiencing labour shortages, particularly in specialized trades, and several of MEQ’s members are seeking employees, especially engineers. Bombardier’s layoffs could help to alleviate issues with a lack of qualified workers for many companies, the association said. Interim Parti Québécois leader Pascal Bérubé immediately called on Legault to haul in Bombardier’s leaders to explain themselves. He also said Bombardier’s leaders should, “within the hour,” renounce generous salary bonuses they are taking given the amount of public money the previous Liberal government shovelled into the company to keep it solvent. “The government of Quebec has to take action,” Bérubé said Thursday morning. “The whole Bombardier saga leaves more than a bitter taste. It’s catastrophic for Quebec workers, and it’s not the first time there is bad news.” He said he was shocked to hear Pierre Fitzgibbon, Quebec minister for economic development, say a day earlier that Bombardier’s sale of the C Series was actually a good thing. Legault has to step in, Bérubé said. Dominique Anglade, the Liberal economic development critic, also called for action. Québec solidaire co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois called the announcement “a Liberal disaster” and a sign that old economic policies don’t work.