(The following Bloomberg News article appeared in the New York Times.)
TORONTO — Bombardier Inc. will cut about 665 of 2,000 jobs at a Toronto plant under a contract agreement that workers ratified Saturday, the Canadian Auto Workers union said.
Wages at the Downsview plant will rise about 7 percent over the three-year life of the contract, and the incentive to take early retirement will more than double. The plant will keep making the Q Series, or Dash-8, turboprop until at least June 2006, and will retain most of the Global Express jet except for work on that model’s fuselage, which will be shifted elsewhere.
“It was a very critical decision for our people and a very tough decision,” the union president, Buzz Hargrove, said. “We have firmed up the company’s commitment to make the Global Express.”
Bombardier, based in Montreal, makes train cars and small commercial jets. It said earlier this month that it would eliminate 3,000 jobs at plants in Canada and Ireland over the next year as it slowed production to cope with falling aircraft orders.
Bombardier will cut about 325 production jobs and 340 office workers at the plant, Mr. Hargrove said.