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.

# U& d  U. x4 Z0 i6 A' nThe 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.
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It is not known which of the company's facilities will be touched by the layoffs.

5 T) m$ S7 I; Z9 ~! H' }$ y7 GEmployees in Quebec received the information about the job cuts on Wednesday.
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+ p% C/ c$ u9 k7 K9 U1 M- p& M) ^# fThey were told that it could be months before the company decides on the extent and locations of the layoffs.

* W) f) a, U, g- a7 U, P1 CSources have indicated to Radio-Canada that the division that makes jet engines for business planes could be affected.

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.
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News 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.
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) p& x4 {& y' m! d( ?' I; kLast year, the company also won a major contract to provide more efficient PW810 engines for the Cessna Citation Columbus large business jet.

% d/ B2 o% M& T( k/ Q" i# kPratt & Whitney Canada is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation, a high-technology company based in Hartford, Conn.