Workers to protest job losses

Workers protesting 1,000 job losses in the North are to hold a mass rally today.

Manufacturing in the North lost 2% of its staff in four days before Easter.

Almost 1,000 jobs went at aerospace company Bombardier while posts were also shed at car parts company Visteon, telecoms firm Nortel and engineer FG Wilson.

Peter Bunting, Irish Congress of Trade Unions assistant general secretary, said: “The recent job losses can be partly blamed on the global economic situation, but insult has been added to injury by the employment practices of some employers who have taken advantage of the weak employment rights legislation which exist in the UK.”

He said these would lead to further deprivation and hardship affecting families, local communities and small businesses supplying these companies.

Speakers today include Mr Bunting and trade unionists from Visteon, Nortel, Bombardier, Irish regional secretary of Unite Jimmy Kelly and ICTU president Patricia McKeown.

Mr Bunting added: “Our manufacturing base is under serious threat. If it is outsourced it may never return.”