AS THE Tory party meets in Manchester, rail union RMT today provided new information showing that nearly 250 apprenticeships and engineering jobs for new graduates from the Bombardier “Centre of Excellence” will be lost if the Government fails to reverse the decision to send the Thameslink fleet contract overseas.
The news coincides with the end of the statutory ninety day consultation on the loss of 1400 jobs at Bombardier’s Derby factory.
Bombardier would be forced to reduce apprentices by 15 this year due to the Thameslink loss and would recruit 10 per year instead of 20 for the next 7 years with the loss of 85 apprentices in total.
In addition, for the Engineering Centre of Excellence the Thameslink contract would have guaranteed an additional 150 permanent engineers. Also scrapped would be the commitment with JCB academy to develop future engineers where Bombardier had committed to invest in 2 students per year for the next 3 years to further develop skills for the future.
RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said
“The Tory Party will be spouting their usual warm words on training and apprenticeships whereas in reality they are on course to destroy career opportunities for a whole generation in Derby through their betrayal of Bombardier. They should be shamed into reversing this scandalous decision.
“With nearly a million young people out of work, kicking the legs from under a skills and training Centre of Excellence in the heart of the Midlands puts us on course for an action replay of Margaret Thatcher’s “lost generation” of the eighties. Same old Tories – bankers and speculators get away with murder while the kids who are our future are slung on the scrap heap.”
