Layoffs coming at jet maker Pratt & Whitney

newlife

Aircraft engine maker Pratt & Whitney Canada is poised to lay off as many as 1,000 employees worldwide in the coming months.

9 O/ N" z4 y% y. ]1 kThe company employs 10,000 people around the world, including 7,000 people in Canada. Most of the company's workforce is in the province of Quebec.

! m+ O1 _. N2 vIt is not known which of the company's facilities will be touched by the layoffs.

9 B+ a, R! S1 D8 G% _& b9 IEmployees in Quebec received the information about the job cuts on Wednesday.
* v7 Q4 C* |( ^- z6 |: v
3 @9 P  p% d% D' VThey were told that it could be months before the company decides on the extent and locations of the layoffs.
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Sources have indicated to Radio-Canada that the division that makes jet engines for business planes could be affected.

Pratt & Whitney Canada makes jets for Bombardier and Cessna, two airplane makers that have announced their own cuts due to a slowdown in the aerospace industry.

8 [# ~+ B. t, x* t3 k. tNews of layoffs comes just months after Pratt & Whitney Canada announced a $575.3 million plant in Mirabel, north of Montreal. The plant is supposed to assemble and test cleaner, quieter and more efficient jet engines, creating 565 jobs.

( L& A* r2 Z# @' C+ Y  DLast year, the company also won a major contract to provide more efficient PW810 engines for the Cessna Citation Columbus large business jet.

9 c) I; Y: H2 x8 o) tPratt & Whitney Canada is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation, a high-technology company based in Hartford, Conn.