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.

/ k4 A( l' L5 D* O/ d& o- L  [% DThe 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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: M" J* f, O0 O! T) F4 e3 ?- {It 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.

; U3 |' e1 A8 ZThey were told that it could be months before the company decides on the extent and locations of the layoffs.

% O: D) Z+ f" `- U/ w/ \6 j2 g& JSources have indicated to Radio-Canada that the division that makes jet engines for business planes could be affected.

* j) `. Q. {; m  t" ^# y* jPratt & 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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9 `+ C% d4 y, _7 t( `: E  hNews of layoffs comes just months after Pratt & Whitney Canada announced a $575.3 million plant in Mirabel, north of Montreal. The plant is supposed to assemble and test cleaner, quieter and more efficient jet engines, creating 565 jobs.
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7 z' B/ J$ J9 iLast year, the company also won a major contract to provide more efficient PW810 engines for the Cessna Citation Columbus large business jet.
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" [" g, A; v' M' dPratt & Whitney Canada is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation, a high-technology company based in Hartford, Conn.