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.

) ?* f7 Z# ~1 `5 {& W6 cThe 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.

+ R6 p  U' q- ]3 N: j3 wIt is not known which of the company's facilities will be touched by the layoffs.

Employees in Quebec received the information about the job cuts on Wednesday.
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They were told that it could be months before the company decides on the extent and locations of the layoffs.

7 Y2 W- s1 N  H- L/ r* E. ?Sources 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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Last year, the company also won a major contract to provide more efficient PW810 engines for the Cessna Citation Columbus large business jet.

1 s  w  T, o1 l' v" n6 U) kPratt & Whitney Canada is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation, a high-technology company based in Hartford, Conn.