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The British defence industry has suffered 'a body blow' with today's (Thursday, 1 July) announcement that 260 jobs are to go at BAe Systems in Leicester.
Unite, the largest union in the country, warned that the highly skilled jobs that will be lost will make the UK reliant on foreign companies for research technology for the next generation of armoured vehicles for the British Army.
When the BAe Systems facility in Leicester closes at the end of 2011, jobs going will include research engineers, designers and manufacturing specialists.
Unite, the biggest union at the plant, is already in negotiations with management about the employees transferring to other parts of the multi-national company.
Bernie Hamilton, Unite's national officer, Aerospace & Shipbuilding, said that the reasons for the closure included the government’s decision to award the contract for the next generation of armoured vehicles to the US company, General Dynamic.
Bernie Hamilton also blamed the new coalition government’s decision to delay the upgrade of the Warrior armoured vehicle until after the strategic defence review in the autumn.
He said: 'This is a body blow to the local Leicester economy and also to the future research and development skill base of the UK’s defence industry.'
'It will result in the UK losing advanced research technology and manufacturing capability for armoured vehicles and will mean that the UK will be dependent on companies from other nations in future for its armoured land vehicles for the army.'
'We will work with the management to identify opportunities for the workers affected to be able to transfer to other businesses elsewhere within BAe Systems.'
The latest cutback follows the decision by BAe Systems to make 380 redundancies in the same division at Leeds and Telford last year. The company employs 50,000 in the UK and a further 60,000 staff in the US and elsewhere around the world.
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