Sacked Nortel workers in campaign

Workers sacked by Nortel at its County Antrim plant earlier this year have begun a campaign for compensation.

In March, 87 staff were let go at its plant in Newtownabbey by the telecoms firm, which cut 3,000 jobs worldwide.

In January, its UK operation went into administration after its parent firm filed for US bankruptcy protection.

The union Unite said some workers had missed out on thousands of pounds of redundancy payments from the firm after working there for up to 35 years.

Workers are beginning their campaign on Friday with a protest outside the Monkstown plant followed by a picket of administrator Ernst & Young's offices in central Belfast.

Union spokesman Jimmy Kelly said: "We will be taking the fight to Nortel and the administrators in order to get justice for these badly-treated workers."

He said senior assembly members had given them "commitments of political cross-party support".

About 500 people are employed at the Newtownabbey site, but at its peak, more than 2,000 people worked there.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version