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.

8 W- m: t4 X9 P0 T& S; B2 d3 j0 }The 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.

) V. B" q$ l+ bIt is not known which of the company's facilities will be touched by the layoffs.
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6 b/ c4 Q6 K/ P. _7 e3 _Employees in Quebec received the information about the job cuts on Wednesday.
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1 z/ `, i) v3 |- ~# u5 p8 l* x9 |They 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.
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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.
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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.
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0 V# m, X( d5 ^9 V9 c' V. k5 zLast year, the company also won a major contract to provide more efficient PW810 engines for the Cessna Citation Columbus large business jet.
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2 W  B& L( n4 v9 x  N  sPratt & Whitney Canada is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation, a high-technology company based in Hartford, Conn.