1,500 jobs go on grim day for British industry

Union leaders tonight warned of a fresh “emergency” in British manufacturing after almost 1,500 job losses were announced on another black day for industry.

The grim news started when consumer products giant Unilever said it was closing a Birds Eye ready meals factory in Grimsby with the loss of 600 jobs.

Shorts-Bombardier added to the gloom by announcing that up to 560 posts would go at its aircraft factory in Belfast.

Mobile phone group Orange completed the misery by warning it will axe between 200 and 300 jobs in its network and technical systems operations, which have bases in Bristol and elsewhere around the country.

The GMB union said almost 6,300 manufacturing jobs were cut last month, almost three times as many as in August.

“This is an emergency,” said general secretary Kevin Curran. “Manufacturing jobs are vanishing needlessly.”

Unilever’s Ice Cream and Frozen Food division said the decision to close Grimsby followed an 11-month review of Birds Eye’s three UK sites.

The group said the plant, which employs mostly part-time workers, was likely to shut during the first quarter of 2005.

It said the site, one of three Birds Eye factories in the UK, was too small to be competitive in the frozen food market.

The reductions at Shorts-Bombardier were blamed on financial difficulties facing some of the firm’s customers. The Belfast jobs will start to go next January.

Mr Curran said the Birds Eye closure confirmed that the Government’s manufacturing strategy was “full of holes”.

He added: “Here is a profit making company with a workforce which has demonstrated complete flexibility and yet Unilever are still walking away. It’s disgraceful that Unilever are abandoning a loyal, highly skilled workforce as they seek to maximise profit through subcontracting work to low-pay, low-skill factories elsewhere in Europe.”

John Wall, national officer of Amicus, said of the Shorts job cuts: “We recognise the critical problems the North American airlines face. Amicus is seeking to ensure that the company cooperates fully in taking a humane and pragmatic approach to the losses.

“It is essential that we maintain a world class capability in Belfast and retain poll position in respect of the competition to build the C series passenger jet.”

The job losses were announced just hours after the American airline Continental confirmed plans to begin a regular direct service between Belfast and New York.

A spokesman at Shorts-Bombardier, Northern Ireland’s single largest manufacturing firm which employs 5,588 workers, said: “We deeply regret the impact this will have on our valued employees and their families.

“It is due to market forces outside of the company’s control, following Bombardier’s lengthy consultations with airline customers, some of whom face severe financial challenges.”