Bombardier lays off 1,429 UK workers

Bombardier assembly line in Holland

Montreal’s transportation giant Bombardier will lay off nearly 15 hundred of its employees in the UK. This is after losing the bidding war for new English trains with German rival Siemens.

The cuts will amount to nearly half of the workforce in its British manufacturing plant. This plant has been making trains since the 1840s and is one of the world’s largest rail manufacturing sites.

Trade unionists are afraid the remaining jobs in the plant will be lost after Bombardier’s last British contract finishes in 2014.