BAE workers to continue fighting for Brough jobs

Workers at BAE Systems in East Yorkshire have vowed to continue the fight against hundreds of job losses despite a reprieve.

According to Unite union, about 205 posts are at risk at BAE's plant in Brough while 218 have been saved.

Roy Cartwright, from Unite, said: "We won't give up until every single person on this site has a job."

BAE has signed a £1.6bn ($3bn) deal to supply Hawk trainer jets to Saudi Arabia.

Unite said the factory would be building parts for the Saudi aircraft for the next two years.

Mr Cartwright said: "I'm really pleased. The fight that the members have put up against the company has come to fruition and we've saved jobs.

"But we still have a number of jobs to save and we've still got a lot of work to do. Our aim is to keep going."

Strong campaign

The defence giant had previously said it would stop building Hawk training jets at its Brough factory in 2013, with the loss of 845 jobs and an end to almost 100 years of aircraft manufacturing at the site.

Employee Derrick Eyre said: "It proves that the battle for Brough campaign has started to do some good.

"It would be great to see more jobs being saved especially in manufacturing because when this started, manufacturing was the one thing that was going from Brough.

"It seems to be a dirty word, 'manufacturing'.

Conservative MP for Haltemprice and Howden David Davis said the mitigated jobs came as a result of the "very strong" campaign by the union and BAE workers over the last few months.

"It's very good news," said Mr Davis. "It shows a change in attitude and approach by the company to bring back work into Brough that would have otherwise gone out in the contractor chain.

"There are other things going on. We've got about three other possible projects that will add to the creation of jobs, to use the Brough site properly.

"We're still fighting hard to find every job that we possibly can for the workforce at Brough."

BAE Systems said the contract included the supply of 22 new Hawk trainer jets, 55 Pilatus PC-21 aircraft and other aircrew training equipment.