Decision to make redundant 160 workers in Antrim comes only months after plans to close Sensata Carrickfergus was announced

Stormont must establish a Manufacturing Taskforce to roll-out a proactive Industrial programme to secure jobs, skills and a future for industry

George Brash Unite Regional Officer for Unite members in Sensata, the sensor manufacturer, expressed his dismay after bosses in the company revealed to the media plans to make 160 workers redundant at their Antrim site.

“While this is only the latest in a string of Covid-related redundancy notices, the impact on each of the 160 workers who will lose their livelihoods will be hugely distressing; another 160 households face the loss of an income in the midst of a pandemic. There is absolutely no need for these job-losses in the context of the continued availability of furlough support through the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

“Today’s announcement comes only months after Sensata bosses decided to shut-down their Carrickfergus site. There is a mounting sense of retrenchment – and it isn’t confined to this one business. Northern Ireland manufacturing is facing a tidal wave of job-losses and threats of job-losses as the Covid pandemic is being used by employers as the excuse to slash their employment footprints and reduce capacity.

“The cumulative impact of job-losses on such a scale will be potentially devastating for the working-class but all we have seen from Stormont is continued inaction. We now need to see real ambition and determined intervention to safeguard the skills base so vital to future growth when markets restabilise. Unite is calling on the Northern Ireland Executive to establish a Manufacturing Taskforce, bringing together unions and employers, to oversee an ambitious industrial programme for growth and a just transition.

“The way in which news of these job-losses was broken to the media demonstrates the need for workers to be collectively organised with full trade union recognition rights. The best way for Sensata workers not already members of our union to protect themselves from similar attacks in the future is by joining Unite. We will be engaging with our members in the company to secure the optimal outcome for any affected by today’s bad news”, Mr Brash concluded.