Australian naval shipbuilders push for defence jobs
Yards try to secure long-term future as manufacturing union warns of job losses
[MELBOURNE] Shipbuilders in Australia are trying to lock in defence contracts with Prime Minister Tony Abbott's government as the nation's biggest manufacturing union warned that the industry may lose 3,000 jobs unless projects are secured.
BAE Systems plc, Europe's largest defence company, and Forgacs Engineering Pty, the nation's biggest privately owned shipbuilding and repair company, said that they are in talks with the government over the future pipeline of work.
Naval shipbuilders are seeking a "commitment to a rolling build and to some certainty for the industry", said Glenn Thompson, assistant national secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union, which says that the workforce could be cut to 1,000 from 4,000 within two years.
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