MORE than 75 jobs, around a third of its workforce, are being axed at Coleraine electronics firm AVX in what unions have described as a "devastating blow".
One of the town's few remaining manufacturers, AVX provided the Unite union with notification for 77 redundancies on its TTP production line.
Colorado-based AVX has been producing electrical capacitors for the automotive industry in the town since 1978, and at one stage employed close to 1,000 people.
Unite regional officer Liam Gallagher said: “We have been working with the company through furlough and flexi-furlough since last November to protect the TTP product line.
“The company had established a second production facility at Penang in Malaysia, which was taking away jobs but the downturn in demand in the sector for these components was the last straw.
“While we retain three further production lines which produce more advanced product, this decision poses questions over the long-term future of AVX here in Coleraine.”
It is understood redundancy negotiations will begin next Monday, and Unite says its priority will be to mitigate against the impact on its members through redeployment within the company and facilitating workers who would like to take voluntary redundancy.
Mr Gallagher added: “We can ill afford to lose more jobs in this area, and manufacturing jobs in particular are essential to sustain jobs in other sectors.
“Workers are facing into a bleak and uncertain time and its clear that there is absolutely no strategy emerging from Stormont or Westminster to save manufacturing jobs or outline a post-Covd recovery plan.
“The likelihood is that initial shock will become anger as job losses turn into long term unemployment.”
The group is one of the world's leading manufacturers and suppliers of a broad range of passive electronic components and related products.
Its main customer is the telecommunications industry, but it also supplies the data processing, automotive and medical sectors.
AVX's fortunes are closely linked to the performance of these sectors and, when they experience a downturn in demand, it also sees erosion in its customer base.
