Hi °C | Lo °C Over 100 jobs are to go at a US electronics firm's Northern Ireland operation, it emerged today.
Earlier this month Sanmina-SCI said it would be laying off 60 staff at its plant in Lisburn.
But it now appears it has decided to make another 45 workers redundant at the Ballinderry Road site.
According to sources at the company, 85 permanent staff and 20 agency workers are to lose their jobs out of a workforce of around 340.
California-based Sanmina-SCI, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is one of the world's biggest electronics manufacturers.
The Lisburn operation makes computer cabinets and blood analysis machines for a Co Cork firm.
The Amicus trade union expressed fears today that Sanmina may close its Ulster plant, moving production to a factory in Hungary where it already employs 600 people.
Union official Terry Collins said the company had claimed a number of its key customers had reduced forecasts for next year and as a result it was scaling down manufacturing.
He explained Amicus was concerned that the raft of redundancies could be the beginning of the end for the Lisburn plant.
Mr Collins said he feared the US firm, whose clients include IBM, Motorola and Ulster generator maker FG Wilson, may move manufacturing to Hungary. Sanmina refused to comment today on the job losses in Lisburn.
