Fokker's woes consign Short's workforce to limbo

LITTLE committed work was done these past two days in the east Belfast division of Short Brothers, which makes wings for the threatened Fokker company. "It's been like limbo in here" said one worker.

And limbo is the twilight area where about 1,500 Short Brothers employees, and several hundred more workers, are likely to remain for the next while as Dutch politicians and potential foreign investors mull over the fate of Fokker.

The mood among the workers is pessimistic at Shorts, although last night there was still some hope after the Dutch government said it was prepared to organise some sort of temporary credit to allow Fokker continue for a month or so, as a rescue operation is mounted.

The aspiration is that somewhere in, Asia or even closer to home is a business person prepared to spend about £1 billion to rescue Fokker, which has been sustaining huge losses. For many this is a forlorn hope.

Workers leaving the Queen's Island Shorts plant these last two evenings have been expressing an understandable feeling of frustration and helplessness, as it will be forces totally outside their control which will decide the future of Fokker, and ultimately their future.

The collapse of Fokker would cost up to 1,500 jobs at Shorts plus several hundred more jobs at firms which carry out contract work for Shorts on behalf of Fokker.

According to the Northern Ireland Economic Research Centre, ultimately up to 3,000 direct and indirect jobs could be threatened. "We must expect a knock on effect of almost one for one if these Shorts jobs go," said Mr Stephen Roper of the Centre yesterday.

Included among the Northern suppliers of Shorts who would be affected should Fokker fall are companies such as Maydown Precision Engineering in Derry, Nicholl Engineering in Belfast and John Huddleston Engineering in Newtownards, Co Down.

And as the supervisory board of Fokker was meeting last night to decide whether the company can have a future, the east Belfast unionist councillor, Mr Jim Rodgers, was further warning how the negative spin off would affect ordinary businesses.

Many Shorts employees come from east Belfast, spending their money in the local shops, stores and pubs. The collapse of this revenue would have a very serious effect on local business said Mr Rodgers.

At Queen's Island in east Belfast where the wings for the Fokker 70 and Fokker loo jets are assembled, management and unions were meeting most of yesterday to discuss the current crisis. But little meaningful information was being exchanged.

"The mood is very dejected," said one worker. "People can't do or say very much because really everything is out of our hands. The big decisions will he made in Amsterdam."

He hoped that Bombardier, Shorts' Canadian parent company, may yet help bail out Fokker. Maybe they will come in when the chips are down to get the best deal for themselves.

So far, however, Shorts' management has indicated that this is not a realistic option. "There is no truth in that speculation," a spokesman said last night. "There have been a lot of rumours going around, but Bombardier have not been in any discussions with Fokker."

Mr Joe Bowers, of the MSF union, said with some understatement yesterday that the situation was "not too good".

"There is a mood of very serious apprehension in the workplace. There is a feeling of helplessness because nobody here can say this, or do that, in order to save Fokker. People have not lost hope, but there is a lot of frustration," said Mr Bowers.

Adding to that frustration is the fact that Fokker still has orders for 34 new planes this year, and orders so far for nine planes in 1997.

Ironically, however, while work providing wings for these jets would prove fairly lucrative for Shorts, there was an expectation that, in the event of some divisions of Fokker being saved, the most likely to go to the wall would be the aircraft division.

Mr Norman Cairns, a senior shop steward with the Transport and General Workers Union, said it was still hoped that the Dutch government would provide Fokker with a cash injection, as efforts continued to find a party prepared to take over Fokker as a going concern, in whole or in part.

The demise of Fokker, he said would not only damage Shorts but the shockwaves would be felt all around Northern Ireland.