Workers at Bombardier's aerospace division in the heart of east Belfast had been expecting bad news since Boeing announced plans to shed 20,000-30,000 jobs by the end of the year following the terrorist attacks in the United States.

Bombardier has a long-standing business relationship with Boeing. Its Shorts division in Belfast is one of the jet manufacturer's approved suppliers and no one in Northern Ireland really believed Bombardier would be immune to the panic gripping the aviation industry.

With commercial airlines on both sides of the Atlantic announcing one series of job losses after another, concern has been growing in Shorts that sooner or later bad news would come knocking on their door. Last week, trade unions took notice when staff received a memo advising them that all overtime had been cut and that a freeze was being imposed on training and development budgets. Job losses are not a new phenomenon in Northern Ireland. The giant cranes of Harland & Wolff which cast a shadow over the Shorts factory in east Belfast are a constant reminder that once great companies can fall victim to commercial realities. But to announce 2,000 potential new job losses in one day is something of a record even for Northern Ireland. Senior sources at Shorts have confessed that the scale of the proposed redundancy programme has taken everyone by surprise. People were simply stunned yesterday by the possibility that their job and possibly the person that works beside them could be on the line. No one was in any mood to hang around outside the factory gates to discuss the day's events. "There has been a lot of speculation about what's going on but a lot of people are very worried. We expect that there will be 2,000 job losses, we don't think it is going to get any better and most people are just praying they will have a job by Christmas," said one woman who works in support functions. "I can't believe that I could lose my job because of what I saw on the television when those planes flew into those buildings in New York," said another. Mr Michael Ryan, the Belfast-born vice-president and general manager of operations for Bombardier in Northern Ireland, tried hard yesterday to convince his staff that the proposed job losses would "protect business competitiveness". But judging by the sombre mood of the people leaving work yesterday evening, there is much convincing yet to be done.