450 jobs to be axed at BAE Lancashire sites (From Lancashire Telegraph)

450 jobs to be axed at BAE Lancashire sites

6:00pm Thursday 9th September 2010 in

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HUNDREDS of jobs are to be axed at defence giant BAE Systems in Lancashire.

Workers were told of the cuts during a number of meetings this morning at the company’s sites in Warton and Samlesbury.

The firm has confirmed that 149 jobs will go at its Samlesbury site with a further 298 at its factory in Warton.

At Samlesbury, bosses said the losses were associated with the reduction in work packages undertaken by BAE for Spirit Aerosystems (Europe) and changing workload levels across a number of other production programmes.

And at Warton the cuts would focus on staff employed on the Tornado, Harrier and Hawk programmes, which have all seen workload reductions together with “a reduction in engineering development and test work”.

Kevin Taylor, managing director of Military Air Solutions at BAE, said: “We appreciate this is difficult news for our employees and we are committed to working with our employees and their representatives to explore ways of mitigating these potential job losses and supporting our people at this time.”

The company added it was vital it was “properly positioned” ahead of the government’s strategic defence review, which is expected to see defence spending slashed in October.

Hyndburn and Haslingden Labour MP Graham Jones, who has spearheaded a campaign against cuts at the aerospace company, said: “We have got to keep fighting to try and stop BAE from cutting these jobs in our region.

“It is devastating for the employee’s and their families and I really feel for them.”

Ribble Valley MP, Nigel Evans, said the cuts were “very disappointing.”

He said: “I do hope that BAE are able to mitigate for the job losses through redeployment.

“The aerospace industry is vital for the Lancashire area.

“I have previously lobbied Liam Fox and Vince Cable is also aware of the situation because these are highly skilled jobs which we don’t want to lose.”

The move comes after 375 staff axed across both sites last year.

Neil Sheehan, Unite union convenor at the Samlesbury site, said: “We are greatly shocked by the numbers of highly skilled manual workers which are being axed.”