Oct 21, 2016
'Everyone understands this is what we need to do': Bombardier CEO defends job cuts
, BNN Bloomberg
Bombardier (BBdB.TO) CEO Alain Bellemare says the latest round of job cuts at the Montreal-based aerospace company is a necessary, but painful part of the company’s turnaround plan.
“Nobody likes this, we also find it difficult,” he told BNN in an interview. “But everyone understands this is what we need to do to bring our costs down so that we can become more productive, more efficient, [so] we can lower our cost structure and we can keep winning in the marketplace.”
Bombardier said on Friday it is cutting another 7,500 jobs from its current global workforce of about 71,000. About two-thirds of the cuts will come from the company’s rail division with the rest coming from administrative and aerospace. About 2,000 of the job cuts will occur in Canada.
Bombardier has resolved its near-term issues and is now looking to make the company stronger going forward, said Bellemare. Bombardier is continuing to move ahead with its CSeries program and is looking to expand its Global 7000 business jets.
“Today what we are moving toward is adding financial flexibility to the company so that we absorb some shock that can come from the ramp-up we are doing on our major programs like the CSeries and the Global 7000,” Bellmare says.
The cuts come as the struggling aerospace company continues to negotiate with Ottawa for financial support. The federal government has yet to make a decision on Bombardier’s request for a billion-dollar investment from Ottawa. The Quebec government gave the company a similar investment earlier this year.
Bellemare says the cuts will have no impact on talks with Ottawa. “This is part of our five year turnaround and it has nothing to do with our negotiation with the federal [government] right now,” he said.
Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains said Ottawa continues to negotiate with Bombardier and wants to ensure any federal investment will create jobs in Canada and preserve the company’s Canadian headquarters.
Bellemare rejected the notion the company was looking to leave Canada. “We are a proud Canadian company,” he told BNN. “We have strong roots here in Canada and clearly our desire is to keep growing here in Canada with our people, with our suppliers, with our customers and our governments.”