Sanmina to close plant in Northern<br>Ireland, 300 loses their jobs

Just before Christmas Sanmina-SCI laid off 105 employees at its plant on Ballinderry Road in Lisburn, Northern Ireland. At that time the remaining employees and especially the union feared that the last word hadn't been said in the reduction carousel. Workers at a Lisburn electronics factory were in a state of shock today after being told the plant will close with 300 jobs lost. Some said they had feared job cuts since Christmas, yet the speed of the announcement still stunned them. Terry Collins of Amicus union said: "It's a bolt out of the blue. We were aware that the company was experiencing some difficulties". "For this to come so quickly is a real shock", he added. Amicus accused big firms of showing no loyalty to their employees. It said there was a concern that multinationals can exit the UK because they have to pay very little in compensation. In France or Germany it would cost up to £100,000 per employee to remove them.