PM May is said to be ‘bitterly disappointed’ that the US Department of Commerce and her friend President Trump have opted to impose a 220% import tariff on the C-Series jet made by Bombardier, one of Northern Ireland’s biggest employers with 4,100 workers.
May said the UK would work with Bombardier to protect ‘vital’ jobs after Boeing complained Bombardier got unfair state subsidies from the UK and Canada, helping it win a major order. The ruling damaged the global aerospace industry and was ‘frankly not what we would expect of a long-term partner to the UK’, said a UK government spokesman.
However, Trump, the leader of this ‘long-term partner of the UK’, has made it perfectly clear that his mission is to destroy all competition to the US bosses so as to preserve US capitalism at everybody else’s expense!
Trump’s Department of Commerce is merely carrying out the programme on which President Trump was elected. In fact, more than Bombardier will be affected by a closure since there are 15 smaller aerospace firms in NI – and dozens more across the UK – which make components for the wings of the C-series aircraft.
The US ruling, which could triple the cost of a C-Series aircraft sold into the United States, could also derail a major order made last year from US airline Delta – a $5.6bn (£4.15bn) deal for up to 125 of the jets. Bombardier said that Boeing was seeking to use US trade laws ‘to stifle competition’.
Washington’s Department of Commerce is due to make a second tariff ruling on 5th October but next February the US International Trade Commission will either uphold the penalty or remove it. The GMB warned the Labour Party conference yesterday that the Bombardier crisis could lead to the ‘hammer blow’ of 14,000 job losses.
Neil Derrick, GMB Regional Secretary, said: ‘Our members working at Bombardier in Belfast face a triple whammy with the attack by Boeing … Boeing are pushing for an 80% penalty tariff – that’s an additional $15 million dollars on the cost of each C series plane sold to Delta Airlines in the US.’
He added: ‘We have already seen over 1,000 job cuts in the last year with 95 job cuts announced earlier this month. The C Series order gave some real hope of job security to our members there. Of course, it isn’t just the jobs of the 4,100 people directly employed at Bombardier that are at risk.
‘If it falls then the domino effect could wipe out another 9,400 jobs in the supply chain. That’s 14,000 good skilled, well paid, unionised jobs in jeopardy. It would be a hammer blow to Northern Ireland’s economy.’
Ross Murdoch, GMB National Officer, commented: ‘This is a hammer blow to Belfast and risks sending shock waves through Northern Ireland’s economy. Theresa May has been asleep at the wheel when she could and should have been fighting to protect these workers. It’s high time she woke up.’ He added: ‘We heard lots of hot air in Ottawa and Florence, but now we need action for Belfast’s workers and the local economy.’
In his conference speech Labour leader Corbyn thought it sufficient just to mention Bombardier as an example of the kind of trade deals we could expect with the USA. He did not mention what Labour was prepared to do to defend the jobs at Bombardier and the thousands of jobs connected to it and the thousands of families that depend on it.
Corbyn must do now what he did not do at the conference – that is give up on the line that Labour is a government in waiting and call for the Tories to be driven out of office! He must pledge full support to the workers at Bombardier for any actions they take to defend their jobs.
He must state that one of the first acts of an incoming Labour government will be to nationalise Bombardier and put it under workers’ management as the only way to save the jobs and the families involved.
Labour must make sure that it is not caught sleeping at the wheel or confining itself to some very hot air at a Labour Party conference.
