“The prospect of 125 redundancies at Schrader (or Sensata Technologies as it is now known) will be of a shock to the affected staff and their families. It is yet another blow to the East Antrim economy and should serve as a reality check as to what is really important: secure sustainable private sector jobs which improve the lives of individual workers and their families.”
Schrader is a local success story having developed from local NI based R&D to become a global manufacturer. But over the years it has been taken over by the Multi Nationals, with Sensata Ltd now the owner.
Roy Beggs MLA continued, “I have spoken to Graeme Thompson, UK general manager of Sensata Technologies, enquiring of the cause of the loss of jobs, and seeking an update on the prospect for the rest of the 1300 of a workforce in Carrickfergus and Antrim. Mr Thompson advised that the drop in demand for the product from EU car manufacturers was the primary reason for the proposed manufacturing reduction. When questioned, he advised NI serviced the European car industry and that the planned job losses was not related to BREXIT but simply due to demand.
He did indicate that the demand for the other Carrickfergus production lines was steady at present.
When I enquired as to relationships with Invest NI and local Universities in terms of R&D, he advised that Research and Development continued In NI and at the chip development centre in Swindon which continued to play an important role in enhancing current products”.
