UNION chiefs today pledged to avoid compulsory redundancies following the latest job blow to hit BAe Systems.

The announcement of 140 job losses at the Samlesbury came on the same day as Airtours axed 1,700 jobs nationwide and a Hapton-based distribution centre made 40 workers redundant.

BAe bosses said it would now enter into a 90-day consultation period with the unions at Samlesbury who vowed to do all it could for the workers.

Keith Plummer, of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering and Electrical Workers, who yesterday met with management at Samlesbury following the announcement, said: "We are hoping to avoid compulsory redundancies here.

"We will be working to secure redeployment for all the people affected. To be honest, we have been expecting the news following September 11." He said that 122 manual jobs were affected and 18 administrative.

BAe Systems recently won a share of a £220billion US contract to build 3,000 Joint Strike Fighter jets and Mr Plummer, who is chairman of the works committee, added: "This could be a saviour -- there is the possibility of redistributing jobs because we have a mix of civil and military work." Ribble Valley Tory MP Nigel Evans also tried to look on the bright side. He said: "This is grim news but I hope that it will be counter-balanced by job creations in other parts of the company otherwise questions will be asked of the management.

"I would rather hope that with the creation of the joint strike fighter that these jobs will be re-deployed. I hope there will be no compulsory redundancies. The skills of these workers should be used wherever possible."

Of the jobs blow at Airtours, which still has a call centre in Accrington and has staff in Helmshore, Rossendale and Darwen MP Janet Anderson said it was down to a tough economic situation for the tourism industry. Mrs Anderson, a former tourism minister, said: "It's always very sad when people lose their jobs and I hope very much that Airtours can keep any redundancies to a minimum. But these are very hard times. Tourist operators, airlines and everyone in the tourism industry and going through very hard times since September 11 through no fault of their own.

"The company has already managed to reduce any job losses and I hope it can reduce these even further. I meet them regularly and they told me last week that in the previous week they had not sold a single holiday in Disney World, Florida, and they usually sell hundreds a week. It is mainly trans-Atlantic business that is hit."

There were mixed reactions to the job losses as workers came out of BAe Systems at Samlesbury yesterday afternoon.

Barry Robinson, a coppersmith at BAe at Samlesbury who has worked at the site for 24 years said: "It's quite a surprise as we've just got the JFS contract."

But one worker said it was 'not unexpected' and another said he had 'expected some sort of announcement.'

Ian Shilcock who has worked at the site as a sub-contractor for the past four and a half years said he was a little surprised but he thought his colleagues were fairly secure.