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Government criticised as BAE proposes 600 job cuts
31 May 2012
According to reports, BAE has now launched consultations with trade unions as it plans to cut 600 jobs.
330 job losses are expected at a Newcastle-upon-Tyne site which has made tanks since the First World War.
The site currently manufactures the Terrier vehicle, but with no prospect of new armored vehicle manufacturing after 2013, the company now intends to close the factory.
BAE managing director Charlie Blakemore said the company needed to adapt to "challenging market conditions" and reduce overheads to "drive better value for our customers and increase our competitiveness in the export market".
"I know that this is difficult news for employees and we will do all we can to help them through this difficult period and mitigate the proposed job losses wherever possible," he said.
280 job cuts are also expected in Crewe, the North East, and South Wales.
Labour's shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said ministers needed to do more to stimulate and support the UK defence industry.
"The country is seeing defence industrial decline on this government's watch," he said.
"Historic sites are closing, jobs are under threat and the defence industry is lacking support.
"Changes to the equipment programme and ongoing conflicts will impact on our industrial base, but, working with the trade unions, all efforts must now be made to redeploy the workforce and save jobs."
HAVE YOUR SAY
31 May 2012
BAE Systems do not help themselves, when bidding for the FRES-SV contract right up until the last minute they planned on building the CV-90 in Sweden, only cahnging their plans at the last minute and stating that they "could" build the vehicles in the North East, I still think that General Dynamics with the ASCOD only got the contract because they planned on building the vehicle in the UK, having spoken to friends of mine in the Army, most preffered the CV90.
Rob - Telford
31 May 2012
By all accounts the FRES SV project has been kicked into the long grass to help balance the budget.....Again our inability to design and build defence products that will be a viable export potential, has destroyed part of our industrial base and jobs.
GB - Kingdom of Fife
01 June 2012
I have to agree with Rob, I remember when BAE said it would build the CV90 in Sweden and I thought "what!" they've given it to GD when they said they would build it in the UK so really this just shows how bad BAE are at making decisions.
Look at the moves earlier this year to favour the Clyde over Portsmouth when we don't know the result of the Scottish referendum in Oct 2014! it's clear we will only build future warships in the UK and yet they could not guarantee that the Clyde would be in the UK by the time we will be building T26. It is not so much the government need a UK industrial policy as much as BAE do.
Graham - High Wycombe
03 June 2012
GB wrote "By all accounts the FRES SV project has been kicked into the long grass to help balance the budget".
Quite the opposite - with Scout SV, it's all systems go, as per the recent PR12 announcement.
AlMiles - Bristol, UK