PRESS ASSOCIATION -- A leading rail union is considering legal action in a bid to save 1,400 jobs which are being axed by manufacturing giant Bombardier after it failed to win a £1.4 billion contract to build new carriages.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport union said it was taking legal advice over a potential challenge on the grounds that the tendering process for the contract, to build carriages for the Thameslink route between Bedford and Brighton, was "loaded" against the UK workforce.
Canadian-owned Bombardier lost out to German group Siemens as the preferred bidder to build 1,200 carriages, leading the firm to announce that, with other contracts coming to an end, 446 permanent jobs and 983 temporary contract staff would be cut.
RMT leader Bob Crow said: "The failure to factor in the wider economic impact in East Midlands makes a total mockery of the Government's core claim that Siemens represented best value for the British taxpayer.
"If that was the grounds for killing off Bombardier then clearly it was based on a total lie and that may be grounds for a challenge."
The union will challenge the Government over the Bombardier jobs during a meeting with Transport Secretary Philip Hammond on Wednesday, and is pressing ahead with a protest in Derby on July 23.
The RMT has warned that thousands of jobs are at stake in the East Midlands because of the cuts at Bombardier.