Blow to East Antrim economy

Employees at tyre pressure firm Sensata Technologies were informed by management this morning (February 23) that there would be one hundred and twenty-five jobs going at the company’s Carrickfergus production site.

“As a result of this devastating redundancy notice, this morning once again hundreds of workers and their families face uncertainty over their livelihoods,” said Unite regional officer Joanne McWilliams.

“This is the latest cruel job loss announcement for our manufacturing sector and the latest major blow to the East Antrim area. Sensata Technologies, formerly Schrader International, was one of the employers in the area which had demonstrated significant growth in recent years against a trend of significant job losses and closures, so this is particularly bad news for the local economy.

“Management have told the workforce that the proposed 125 job losses are a result of a delay in anticipated demand for Sensata’s new Tyre Pressure Monitoring System,” she added. “It may be hoped that these job-losses may be reversed when sales of this cutting-edge product picks up again in the future but questions remain over the way management have rolled out their marketing and sales effort.

“These job-losses once again call into question the absence of a manufacturing strategy for Northern Ireland, the laggard nature of government support and intervention in the economy and the absence of a functioning locally-accountable executive to respond adequately to what amounts to a jobs crisis in the manufacturing sector, in particular that in the Antrim area,” McWilliams went on to say.

“Unite will be proactive in seeking to defend the interests of our members in this situation. We don’t accept management’s explanation for these redundancies and we will want to see much more justification for what amounts to a huge reduction in the workforce. Our union has considerable resources which we will bring to bear to secure the best possible outcome for our members.”