Bombardier workers told to expect layoffs

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September 23, 2009

By DAN HEATH The Press Republican Wed Sep 23, 2009, 07:58 PM EDT

PLATTSBURGH — Bombardier Transportation has informed employees of potential layoffs by the end of the year.

Workers at its Plattsburgh railcar assembly plant recently received notice under the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires companies to provide employees a 90-day advance notice of mass layoffs.

Talal Zouaoui, head of communications for Bombardier Transportation North America, said Wednesday that the notices were delivered to under 200 of the 350 employees in Plattsburgh.

Layoffs could start Dec. 20.

“We are looking forward to ramping up contracts before that deadline,” Zouaoui said. “These (work force) adjustments are temporary. We are looking forward to be able to recall these employees if they do get laid off.”

The layoffs come at the end of a contract to assemble railcars for the New Jersey Transit Authority.

Zouaoui said the company tries to have work on two contracts at a time to avoid situations such as this.

About 160 Bombardier employees in Plattsburgh had their work hours cut in July 2008, a move that remained in effect through the end of that year. That was the result of the approaching end of a contract to assemble rail cars for the New Jersey Transit System.

The company had 125 of its 350 employees in the New York Department of Labor’s Shared Work Program in September 2008. That had dropped to 37 employees in February and was expected to end in March.

The program helped Bombardier keep employees on the payroll during an assembly slowdown by allowing them to collect partial unemployment benefits.

Bombardier has had a number of periodic layoffs between completion of rail-car contracts and the start of the next contract.

The company announced a contract with the Chicago Transit Authority for 400 railcars in May 2006. The start of that work is awaiting successful prototype testing.

Zouaoui said Plattsburgh remains an important location to the future of Bombardier Transportation. It allows the company to meet state and federal content provisions required in many municipal transit authority contracts.

E-mail Dan Heath at:

dheath@pressrepublican.com