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.

$ Q) z* b: C5 ^4 ~0 CThe 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.

( i: q5 A$ ?1 S) M; zIt is not known which of the company's facilities will be touched by the layoffs.
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Employees in Quebec received the information about the job cuts on Wednesday.
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They were told that it could be months before the company decides on the extent and locations of the layoffs.

Sources have indicated to Radio-Canada that the division that makes jet engines for business planes could be affected.

6 b1 K+ H/ T! y- A/ O$ E: S3 _5 F5 {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.

1 b, H- z7 [& l* }. _1 pNews 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.

3 Y0 [/ L; l: [+ nLast year, the company also won a major contract to provide more efficient PW810 engines for the Cessna Citation Columbus large business jet.

2 t+ C; d) a# X$ H5 FPratt & Whitney Canada is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation, a high-technology company based in Hartford, Conn.