Employees stunned that facility could not be saved

Stunned employees at Tellabs Ltd said yesterday they had expected job losses at the Shannon plant, but they never expected the company to shut down the facility.

After attending a meeting where workers were told the plant would be closed down on a phased basis by the end of the year, Ms Mary O'Donnell, from Shannon, said: "We had heard rumours, especially in the last week or two, but nobody expected the facility to be closed outright. We were hoping it could be saved."

Ms O'Donnell said there were tears at the meeting where workers were informed of the company's decision. She said: "There was a lot of disappointment and sadness. I just have to move forward now and find alternative employment."

A test-technician, Mr Dave McMahon, said: "Over the last two to three weeks, there have been a lot of rumours. The company is split into two, the manufacturing centre and the distribution centre and we thought that the distribution centre would stay."

Mr Paul Nolan, from Limerick, said: "We all expected severe cuts, but we didn't think that it would be the whole facility. We had a lot of things going for us, such as being in the euro zone, closer to mainland Europe than Tellabs' other facility at Finland and we have seen massive investment here in recent years, where Tellabs own the building, so it has come as a surprise."

Mr McMahon added: "To find new employment, I would say that we would have to travel, especially with the closure of Flextronic in Limerick. There are a lot of people in the technology sector in the mid-west looking for new work.

"Also, the money won't be as good elsewhere as companies can afford now not to pay people as well. Tellabs was a good place to work. They have been fabulous and they couldn't have done any more for their people."

Mr Padraic McCormack, an engineer from Shannon, got married last year and recently bought a new home. He said yesterday: "The announcement was half-anticipated with the cutbacks that had been taking place. It has come at a bad time and the prospects of getting a new job are not great because companies are not hiring at the moment."

Mr McCormark said "the writing was on the wall when the company moved its Research and Development (R&D) operation to another plant last March."

Another employee, Mr Tom Browne, said: "We have seen the state of the industry in telecoms, it was looking bad, so today's announcement is not a complete surprise."