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North-west Tasmanian workers are being asked to work at a factory in Thailand which will replace many of their jobs.
Up to 200 jobs will go from Caterpillar Underground Mining's Burnie operations in coming months, leaving its Tasmanian manufacturing workforce at about 250.
The cuts were announced on Tuesday.
Yesterday it emerged some workers were being asked to spend some of their time working in Thailand, where a new Caterpillar factory is taking over some of the heavy equipment models produced in Burnie.
Caterpillar confirmed that, saying some Burnie employees would be involved in some of the transition work.
A spokesman said he did not have further details to provide as it was early in the process.
There is also talk that the Thai factory has been struggling to produce machines of sellable quality, with one source putting the number as low as two.
The company spokesman declined to answer questions about that.
He said Caterpillar did not discuss production numbers ``or any metrics information associated with production at a Caterpillar facility''.
Australian Manufacturing Workers Union state secretary John Short said he understood some Burnie workers had been doing some work in Thailand for at least 18 months.
Now that the news of the job losses was out, he said, the process would ``probably leave a very bitter taste in their mouths''. He said Burnie workers would possibly be training Thai workers to take their jobs.
``The quality and the skill of the workers in Burnie is world-class.
``We're not sure whether that quality is going to be able to be produced in Thailand.
``We've heard stories the quality in the Thai factory may not be up to the standard of that produced by the Burnie workforce.''