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.
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5 d) c' Z- U! I& Q, Q$ U  TThe 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.

0 o8 T: x1 N- M( P2 s- l3 Z& gIt is not known which of the company's facilities will be touched by the layoffs.
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  m1 ]. J, W. T4 n1 I4 k9 OEmployees in Quebec received the information about the job cuts on Wednesday.

' p/ \% s- t" m$ J7 ^They were told that it could be months before the company decides on the extent and locations of the layoffs.
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' t+ N" q" u( ~! GSources have indicated to Radio-Canada that the division that makes jet engines for business planes could be affected.
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) `0 Q; @+ Y; P. A5 `8 K) n; O- Y8 O" uPratt & 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.

News 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) f9 I5 L2 J6 u- q& Q- q7 MLast year, the company also won a major contract to provide more efficient PW810 engines for the Cessna Citation Columbus large business jet.

Pratt & Whitney Canada is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation, a high-technology company based in Hartford, Conn.