Defence Firm BAE Axes Almost 3,000 UK Jobs

Defence company BAE Systems has confirmed 2,942 job losses among its UK workforce.

Union chiefs had expressed fury that workers had been kept waiting on their futures after the news was exclusively revealed by Sky's City editor Mark Kleinman on Saturday.

In a statement this morning, BAE said the decision will mainly affect its military aircraft division as a result of nations involved in the Typhoon fighter programme cutting production rates.

899 jobs will go at Brough in East Yorkshire, 843 at Warton and Preston in Lancashire and 565 at Samlesbury, with hundreds more positions lost at smaller BAE sites.

Ian King, chief executive of BAE Systems, said: "Our customers are facing huge pressures on their defence budgets and affordability has become an increasing priority.

"To ensure we remain competitive, both in the UK and internationally, we need to reduce the overall costs of our businesses in-line with our reduced workload."

Union officials said the Government's defence cuts were to blame for the job losses, which they described as a "hammer blow" to manufacturing, as orders for the Eurofighter Typhoon combat jet slow down.

Paul McCarthy, regional officer of the GMB, said it was a "disgrace" that workers heard via a leak to the media over the weekend that thousands of job losses were imminent.

"We are going to ask the company to launch a formal investigation to establish who leaked this information," he said.

The Business Secretary Vince Cable MP said: "This news from BAE Systems will be a serious knock to the individuals and communities affected.

"My officials and the BIS local teams are already in touch with the company, local authorities and local enterprise partnerships to make sure that everything possible is done to help those affected at Brough, Warton, Samlesbury and other sites."

Shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said the news was "a devastating blow for Lancashire and Yorkshire and a real knock for UK manufacturing".

He added: "We need a fast response from ministers with a clear plan of action. At a time when it is so hard to find a new job, this is a dreadful moment to lose the one you have."

BAE has a 33% stake in the Eurofighter joint venture company alongside Eads and Finmeccanica and has received orders for 550 planes from the four partner nations involved - the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Earlier this year, BAE Systems said around 2,000 workers would leave voluntarily or move to other jobs in the company.

But there will be 450 compulsory lay-offs at several military sites across the UK, including Woodford, near Manchester, Farnborough in Hampshire, RAF Kinloss in Scotland, RAF Cottesmore in Lincolnshire and Brough.

The cuts were blamed on decisions such as the scrapping of the Nimrod and the accelerated retirement of the Harrier aircraft.

:: Some sailors from the frigate HMS Cumberland, which helped rescue British citizens from Libya in February, will be among those to be told on Friday that they no longer have jobs in the Royal Navy, according to The Daily Telegraph. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/thousands-job-cuts-defence-firm-bae-042243677.html

The Business Secretary Vince Cable MP said: "This news from BAE Systems will be a serious knock to the individuals and communities affected."

BAE Systems, Brough, manufactures the Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer aircraft at Brough Aerodrome. BAE also offer widely sought-after and very competitive Modern Apprenticeships to local school leavers. The runway at the site has re-opened for occasional use solely by Hawk aircraft taking off after manufacture to transfer by air to Warton in Lancashire for final flight testing and painting though the former Air Traffic Control building has now been transformed into the "Brough Business Centre". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brough,_East_Riding_of_Yorkshire