[09
NOV 00] ROLLS-ROYCE NEWS
Rolls-Royce To Cut 1,300 Coventry Jobs
BY
ANTONY
HOPKER
Up to 1,300 jobs are
to be axed at Rolls-Royce's Ansty plant after the company announced a
major sake-up of its operation.
Stunned workers were
today being told that hundreds of redundancies were likely as part of
the review over the next two years.
The
cuts will mean more than half the jobs at the Ansty site will go, some
of them overseas.
600
jobs, in the area that makes gas turbines, are moving to Montreal in
Canada, and energy research, design and development is also moving
across the Atlantic.
The
division that makes components for the aerospace industry will also be
reviewed - leaving the future uncertain for another 650 positions.
Staff
are to be given the option to retrain and move to other Rolls-Royce
factories in Crewe or Derby, but redundancies are said to be
"inevitable".
The Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union said the job cuts were a "bitter pill" for workers to swallow and pledged to fight any compulsory redundancies.
The
reorganisation could lead to the creation of 300 new positions in the
company, but it has not been revealed where these will be.
Carl
Pearson, Assistant Director (Regeneration) at Coventry City Council,
who is the head of Coventry Centre for Investment, said the news was a
blow for the city.
But
he said that there would be firms in similar sectors who would
probably looking to take skilled staff on.
He
said:
"It's
very disappointing that Rolls-Royce have made this announcement. To me
and the council this has come as a bit of a shock. "We
are concerned that there have been a number of announcements
recently about job losses. "We
are upbeat that Coventry has lower unemployment than in the past,
but we must keep investing to attract new investment to the area.
The city is part of the global economy and it has to keep moving.
"In
any one year 1,000 jobs are lost because of businesses changing, and
this announcement means we could be looking to create 2,000 jobs in
the city just to keep things even.
"I
believe that the people at Rolls-Royce are high-quality and highly
skilled. in recent years there have been new jobs in the engineering
and tool-makers sector, and these people might find work there.
"Some
people will have worked for Rolls-Royce for a long time and will be
disoriented at working for another company.
"We
will help them and do all we can to help any worker find another job
or retrain to get work."
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