Stronger together

Unite members at Spirit AeroSystems are pressing the UK government to take action to protect British aerospace and the jobs and skills on which it relies.  

A delegation of Unite members travelled down to Parliament in London on Wednesday (April 30) to urge the government to intervene after aircraft manufacturer Airbus announced only a partial buyout of Belfast-based Spirit AeroSystems. The announcement has left thousands of workers with an uncertain future.

As part of the buyout, around 1,000 workers employed in the manufacture of Airbus wings will be taken on by the company directly. The 400 to 500 people working on Airbus fuselage and other production lines for Spirit will be taken on by Airbus but with longer-term uncertainty outside the current contract period.

The remainder of the workforce – over 2,000 workers – are employed on non-Airbus work. As yet, these workers do not know who their future employer will be and they have no assurances for their employment.

UniteLive caught up with Unite Spirit AeroSystems senior rep Gaye Partridge (pictured below right with reps Noel Gibson and Dougie Jamison), who explained why she and her fellow Unite members travelled down to London this week.

“We felt we needed to take our message beyond the local level all the way to Westminster,” she said.

Their visit was timed to coincide with a Northern Ireland Affairs committee meeting in Parliament, and Gaye was pleased to report that several MPs came out to meet with Spirit Aerosystems workers.

“But we need them to be raising the issue directly with the highest levels of the Labour government and with prime minister Keir Starmer because at the end of the day, Airbus is a major employer in the UK.”

Gaye, who also serves as Unite Spirit shop stewards committee chair, went on to say that members are very worried about their futures.

 “Airbus has sectioned off a part of the business, and the rest of the workforce doesn’t know who their employer will be. The default is that Boeing will take us on, but I personally don’t think it’s in Boeing’s plans to have us either. Our members keep asking, ‘What about me? Am I going to Airbus? If not, who am I going to work for? Are they going to sell us off, or are they just going to close the gates?’”

Unite is confident that not only can Airbus fully afford to take over the entire business, but it is especially equipped to ensure that it thrives.

“We’ve got a portfolio of work in Airbus that, we believe, would fit in perfectly with Airbus Atlantic, which does work for outside suppliers like Bombardier and Rolls-Royce,” Gaye noted.

She added that it wasn’t just their jobs that are at stake – there’s a bigger picture. And so, Gaye said, it is imperative that the government use its influence to keep Spirit AeroSystems’ operations intact under the aegis of a single company.  

 “It’s not just 2,500 jobs that are at risk. We estimate that 10,000 jobs in the wider supply chain could also be on the line. This figure doesn’t include other businesses that would be effected – for example, the wee shop down the road where workers buy their newspapers. It’s not just suppliers – it’s the whole community that’ll be affected.”

Gaye also highlighted that maintaining aerospace skills in Northern Ireland is imperative.

“These are highly skilled jobs, and we know that once skills go, they don’t return. It took our company a long time to recruit and build that skilled workforce that we have today – if we don’t have stability and certainty, then all that effort will have been wasted. We’ve been here for over 100 years – we need to maintain those skills and go forward.”

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham urged the government to step in.

“Hundreds of highly skilled Spirit workers are facing an uncertain future,” she said. “The UK government must now intervene to secure not just the workers but the future of Northern Ireland aerospace.

 “The government has huge leverage over the key players – billions in contracts and government grants go to these aircraft manufacturers. It cannot drop the ball and allow the collapse of Northern Ireland’s strategic and world-class aerospace sector. Government needs to deliver for Northern Ireland.”

Unite Ireland secretary Susan Fitzgerald added, “Aerospace is a critical and high-value sector at the heart of Northern Ireland’s economy. Production at Spirit is central to that with a supply chain extending across the region and indeed the whole island.

 “The potential break up of Spirit is not just a huge threat to our members’ livelihoods but is an unprecedented threat to Northern Ireland’s economy and society.”

By Hajera Blagg

Photos by Mark Thomas