UNIONS were left reeling today as Lancashire's biggest employer, British Aerospace, dropped the bombshell news that it was seeking 900 redundancies in the county.

The company is planning the voluntary job losses at Samlesbury and Warton - the headquarters of BAe's military aircraft operations - as part of a "restructuring and streamlining" of its manufacturing operations.

The company has also announced the closure of its Dunsfold site in Surrey, where the world famous Harrier jump jet was made, with the compulsory loss of 800 jobs.

It is seeking another 500 voluntary redundancies at other sites, including Chadderton in Greater Manchester, and Brough near Hull.

Small numbers of voluntary redundancies are expected at Prestwick in Scotland and at BAe's headquarters at Farnborough in Hampshire.

Shocked East Lancashire MPs vowed to raise the matter with Defence Secretary George Robertson and contact management - and warned of the knock-on effects for industry throughout East Lancashire. BAe said it was talking to workforce representatives and would take into account the opportunities for employee transfers within the company.

Sir Ken Jackson, general secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union, said the announcement was a "bitter blow" for workers.

He added: "They have made enormous strides in productivity in recent years.

"The workforce does not deserve to have their lives turned upside down like this. We will be discussing with BAe how best we move forward."

"This is very bad news," said John Wall, aerospace officer of the Manufacturing Science and Finance union.

"We will press the company to transfer staff to other locations or to re-train them and we will do all we can to avoid compulsory redundancies."

The job losses are mainly due to the ending of production of both the Tornado and the Harrier and a switch to less manpower-intensive working processes.

The improvements in efficiency and productivity mean that BAe's big project, the Eurofighter Typhoon, will require only 18 months to build compared to 36 months for its Tornado predecessor.

BAe chief executive John Weston said: "The announcement today will accelerate our drive for continuous improvements in productivity and enable us to maximise the value from the strength of our order book which at the end of last year stood at over £28 billion." Ribble Valley MP NIgel Evans said: "At a time of rising orders and the commitment to the European Fighter Aircraft people will be baffled that jobs are being cut back.

"If it transpires that jobs are being transfered to other parts of the world, including the European Union, as part of some world-wide restructuring than various people who have been made redundant in Lancashire will be very angry."

Pendle MP Gordon Prentice said: "This is dreadful news. We have known that there was major restructuing of the defence industry and now we are finding out the consequences.

"This could have a major knock-on effect throughout the aerospace industry in East Lancashire and is a massive blow to the North West."

Dennis Mendoros, chairman of the North West Aerospace Alliance, said: "We are obviously saddened by today's announcement of redundancies at British Aerospace.

"However, these projected job losses are in no way reflective of the aerospace industry as a whole. Indeed the aerospace industry in our region is as bouyant as it has been for the last decade, at least.

"Obviously we respect the decision of British Aerospace as it seeks to maintain its international competitive position. I am certain that the majority of workers who are seeking alternate employment in the aerospace industry will have no difficulty in finding suitable positions."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.