By Ruth Sunderland
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There were no smiling faces among the lads and lasses on the Scotswood Road yesterday after BAE Systems announced plans to close its Tyneside tankmaking facility with the loss of up to 330 jobs.
The Armstrong Works in Elswick on the banks of the River Tyne have been part of the fabric of working-class life in Newcastle since 1847 and are mentioned in the Geordie folk song Blaydon Races.
In its heyday in World War One, 77,000 people were employed at the Works, which provided jobs for a quarter of the people living in the tiny terraced dwellings sloping steeply down to the river.
The Armstrong Works in Elswick are part of Newcastle's history
Both the hydraulics for Tower Bridge and the Vickers machine gun came from the Tyneside factory, which also produced parts for the Spitfire and the ‘bouncing bombs’ used by the Dambusters of 617 Squadron in the Rhur Dams raid.
The famous Newcastle Swing Bridge featured in the film ‘Get Carter’ also owes its existence to the factory, as it was built to allow ships access to the Scotswood Road site.
The factory is scheduled for closure next year as BAE sees ‘no prospect’ of more armoured vehicle manufacturing work once production of the Terrier engineering vehicle ends.
In addition to the Newcastle job losses, another 290 will be shed by BAE at sites across the UK, with 10 going at its Farnborough HQ and the rest at munitions sites in Crewe, Washington in the North East and Glascoed in South Wales.
That is in addition to 3,000 job losses announced last year in the military aircraft business, though a BAE spokesmen said many of those will be ‘mitigated’.
More than 200 jobs at Brough in Yorkshire have been spared the axe thanks to orders for Saudi training aircraft.
The Barrow submarine works in Cumbria is recruiting, as is the company’s cyber security arm Detica.
BAE also shed 5,000 jobs from its UK operations in 2009 and 2011. Defence companies are major exporters and providers of skilled jobs in the hard-pressed regions but have been hit hard by military spending cuts.
Kevin Rowan, regional secretary of the Northern TUC, said: ‘The announcement from BAE Systems is a hammer blow to North East manufacturing.
Losing so many highly-skilled and well-paid jobs is devastating for all individuals concerned.’
He added: ‘This is further evidence that ministers must urgently review their counterproductive cuts and become much more active in safeguarding British industry and jobs.’
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What next? Our armoured vehicles made by Tatra of India, or even Chinese manufacturers, after all every thing seems to be going that way, Because don't forget BAE Systems don't have to pay out anything when service personel die of inferier products, (Excuse: because it was a new type of this or that)
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I have to agree with Mr Smith. The manufacture of this kit made no small contribution to our success in the world wars and we owe this site a debt of gratitude, not the throwaway lines of a tired soundbitten headline tapped from the keyboard of some disrespecting hack.
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I have to say Ruth Sunderland I don`t like the tone of your report here. Poorly written and at points almost making fun of the people of the North losing jobs. I don`t think anyone will be singing the "Geordie folk song Blaydon Races" whilst trying to pay their mortgages do you? Think harder before you write an article.
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