Siemens Canada to cut 550 jobs

The turbine manufacturing operation that is more than 100 years old will close by July 2011, eliminating 550 jobs over three shifts, the Hamilton Spectator reported.

Plant Operations Manager Brian Maragno told the newspaper the affected workers could be offered work at other Siemens' Canadian operations or in the Charlotte facility.

Some 350 of the workers are members of the Canadian Autoworkers Union, which issued a statement denouncing the decision to close the plant as "entirely unacceptable."

"Instead of keeping the work in Canada, where the facility is equipped to produce the turbines, the company is choosing to send it to Charlotte, North Carolina, where it will put $130 million into an expansion," the release said. "That expansion should happen here in the city of Hamilton."

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).