Employees who are covered under certain local contracts, about half of Bombardier's 76,400 workers, won't be affected. The company has already been tightening its belt, announcing in January that it was eliminating 1,700 jobs at its aerospace division, mostly in and around its headquarters in Montreal.

It's also reducing training budgets and restricting business travel, encouraging employees to use videoconferencing instead, according to Isabelle Rondeau, a Bombardier spokeswoman, confirming the contents of an article that appeared today in Canada's La Presse newspaper.

"Meeting our profitability goals is a priority," Rondeau said in a phone interview. "We've reached many milestones in the development of our new products, we have a substantial backlog, but now we have to deliver on our profit targets. That's the context for these measures."