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.

) G1 T. S+ g2 D' e  OThe 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.

' Z" X0 C5 }+ d' k/ M; C' L9 xIt is not known which of the company's facilities will be touched by the layoffs.
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; f6 r, j' f' A7 f1 WEmployees in Quebec received the information about the job cuts on Wednesday.
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/ _, ~+ U" V& @They were told that it could be months before the company decides on the extent and locations of the layoffs.

Sources have indicated to Radio-Canada that the division that makes jet engines for business planes could be affected.

4 O# m) ?! {& XPratt & 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.

( t+ v: d& ^/ ?; V" C; BPratt & Whitney Canada is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation, a high-technology company based in Hartford, Conn.