Workers at the IEC electronics plant in Longford learned yesterday that the US parent company is to close the factory, with the loss of 112 jobs. Neither IEC, based in Newark, New Jersey, nor local management made any statement on the closure, which will happen in December.
The SIPTU representative at the plant, Mr Seamus McNa mee, said the news had come as "a bolt from the blue". The union is to meet IEC management on Monday.
The firm, which originally traded as Ohshima Electronics Manufacturing, was taken over by the US firm IEC Electronics Corporation 14 months ago. The Longford plant opened in 1990.