A lot of these employees transferred from Nortel into what they thought was secure employment

Jackie Pollock Amicus

A further 30 jobs will be lost at a nearby sister company while the remaining operations will be moved to that company's factory.

Jackie Pollock from the trade union Amicus said workers at the plant were very angry.

"They are shocked devastated and angered," he said.

Redundancy figures

"A lot of these employees transferred from Nortel into what they thought was secure employment.

"Some of them left jobs to go to Nortel and within a period of time they were working for another company and now after one year's employment they have lost their jobs."

The mayor of Carrickfergus Alderman William Ashe said the job losses were the latest in a series affecting workers in the area.

We can't continue to carry the losses that we've been making here on the site

Bill Nixon Solectron general manager

"When today's figures are added to redundancy figures from April 2001 east Antrim will have lost somewhere in the region of 1,448 jobs," he said.

"That is mainly due to the downturn in the figure optics industry that hit Nortel last year.

"Indeed, 44% of all the redundancies in Northern Ireland have happened in the East Antrim constituency this year."

Tumbled

The company says changing economic conditions and customer demand mean the plant has been unprofitable for more than a year and is no longer viable

The firm's general manager, Bill Nixon, said: "We have gone through a difficult period economically in the electronics industry over the last 12 months.

"We had hoped that we would see some upturn, but as we look through this year, calendar year, it looks like it will continue to be suppressed and stay flat.

"We can't continue to carry the losses that we've been making here on the site."

Solectron supplies it with circuit boards and Nortel's orderbook has tumbled over the last year.

Last year, Nortel made more than 800 people redundant and its plant in Newtownabbey, County Antrim.

It was part of a decision by the firm to reduce its global workforce by 20,000.

The plant makes telecommunications transmission equipment and had been a market leader in the provision of fibre optic equipment.

Nortel is a Canadian-owned global hi-tech corporation which operates in 100 countries.