Seagate sheds 900 jobs in Derry

stephenite · October 30, 2007, 03:37:25 AM

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/1029/jobs.html

Ouch - this is not good news for these people, but could have major ramifications elsewhere, will be interesting to see if some of the large US Tech firms based down South follow suit. Imagine Lexlip/Celbridge if Intel and HP were to up sticks, ditto Limerick and Bray for Dell

Goats Do Shave · October 30, 2007, 08:03:19 AM

You are correct it is a big concern....

The only thing is, I think Seagate is a manufacturing IT company, I reckon Knowledge based IT companies (Software developing) should be ok, FOR NOW!! $:-\$

Scary stuff at halloween!

Blacksheep · October 30, 2007, 08:14:04 AM

900 jobs is a big hit for any town.

Gnevin · October 30, 2007, 08:23:35 AM

Did you see the employees on the news, they didn't look like a bunch of 3rd level qualified people ,appears to be a simple manufacturing job from what i could see

Doogie Browser · October 30, 2007, 09:03:16 AM

Very judgemental of you Gnevin, Seagate would be probably the largest employer in the North West and (I think) one of the better employers in terms of benefits etc. I would be interested to know what a 3rd Level Qualified Person looks like. Maybe you haven't noticed but 3rd level Qualifiications are no guarantee of glamorous career prospects anymore and are not to difficult to come by nowadays anyway.
A massive below to the local & wider economy, it is vital that the relevant bodies react to this as the knock on effect for the region will be dire. 900 wage packets taken out of any town or area would be catastrophic and difficut to absorb.

Tankie · October 30, 2007, 09:08:33 AM

Quote from: Doogie Browser on October 30, 2007, 09:03:16 AM
Very judgemental of you Gnevin, Seagate would be probably the largest employer in the North West and (I think) one of the better employers in terms of benefits etc. I would be interested to know what a 3rd Level Qualified Person looks like. Maybe you haven't noticed but 3rd level Qualifiications are no guarantee of glamorous career prospects anymore and are not to difficult to come by nowadays anyway.
A massive below to the local & wider economy, it is vital that the relevant bodies react to this as the knock on effect for the region will be dire. 900 wage packets taken out of any town or area would be catastrophic and difficut to absorb.

I think what Gnevin was trying to say was that the jobs that were lost were not high skilled jobs. it just like when gateway left here, all the lads did was put computerins into boxes. Manufacturing is dead in Europe as it is too expensive. Never like to see anyone lose their job tho.

Gnevin · October 30, 2007, 09:49:58 AM

Quote from: Tankie on October 30, 2007, 09:08:33 AM
Quote from: Doogie Browser on October 30, 2007, 09:03:16 AM
Very judgemental of you Gnevin, Seagate would be probably the largest employer in the North West and (I think) one of the better employers in terms of benefits etc. I would be interested to know what a 3rd Level Qualified Person looks like. Maybe you haven't noticed but 3rd level Qualifiications are no guarantee of glamorous career prospects anymore and are not to difficult to come by nowadays anyway.
A massive below to the local & wider economy, it is vital that the relevant bodies react to this as the knock on effect for the region will be dire. 900 wage packets taken out of any town or area would be catastrophic and difficut to absorb.

I think what Gnevin was trying to say was that the jobs that were lost were not high skilled jobs. it just like when gateway left here, all the lads did was put computerins into boxes. Manufacturing is dead in Europe as it is too expensive. Never like to see anyone lose their job tho.

Yeah what he said .

Doogie Browser · October 30, 2007, 10:26:55 AM

Ok fair enough! Just very sensitive times in the North West after this announcement, high skiled or not though it is going to be very difficult for those made redundant to seek employment on a parity with their current salary from Seagate

nifan · October 30, 2007, 10:44:28 AM

The brother in law works in the Derry plant, no word on them yet, but it can only be a matter of time surely.

Gnevin · October 30, 2007, 10:50:53 AM

Quote from: nifan on October 30, 2007, 10:44:28 AM
The brother in law works in the Derry plant, no word on them yet, but it can only be a matter of time surely.

They said last night that was 100% safe but i guess you can't really trust that

Norf Tyrone · October 30, 2007, 11:25:33 AM

QuoteThe brother in law works in the Derry plant, no word on them yet, but it can only be a matter of time surely.

Don't think so...at least I hope not

The Springtown and Limavady plants are two very seperate facilities manufacturing different parts of the hard disk. In Limavady they manufacture the substrate i.e. the elemant that the info/data is stored on. In ST they manufacture the recording head i.e. the bit that reads and writes the information to to the substrate.

Not overly sure on Limavady's operation, but I believe it's one of the more basic elemants of the assembly, and thus very cheap to manufacture. For all intents and purposes it's fairly basic, and labour costs would be a relativelly high percentage of costs, hence the writing has been on the wall for over 2 years in Limavady.

The manufacture of the recording head is the most complex part of the hard drive. It takes ~35 days to make from start to finish, and can barely be seen by the naked eye upon completion. It's high technology and the average cost of a piece of equipment in the plant is I'd take a guess at $0.5million. There are probably >500 pieces of equipment in the factory. Therefore labour costs are not that critical.

It would be impossible to close the Springtown factory within a 2 year window I'd imagine. Additionally ST is still investing heavilly in equipment, figures which I cannot divulge. ST is also recruiting at the minute...which is a bit ironic really.

I have to admit that Seagate is a very good employer, with excellent benefits. I think it's a wee bit of a blessing for the Limavady ones that they have given them a year to 'tool up' with skills etc. In addition Seagate has a scheme where-by if you want to do a further education course they will pay for it AND give you the time off to do it! Therefore those looking ahead should've been taking advantage of this.

All the same it's a massive blow for Limavady's economy, and good luck to all.

tyssam5 · October 30, 2007, 02:25:13 PM

For companies like Intel and Seagate doesn't having a European manufacturing base signiificantly lower their tariff for product entry into the European marketplace?

T Fearon · October 30, 2007, 02:56:47 PM

Could these jobs not have been saved....onto a floppy disk at least?

tyssam5 · October 30, 2007, 05:55:00 PM

If you construct and tool a fab to build computer chips for a billion dollars, what you pay Paddy isn't that much of a concern. It's more what Bertie will give you to build said fab or more specifically what the EU will let him give you, same goes for Seagate Springtown. Also's there less chance of the Irish government taking your entire hi-tech manufacturing process secrets and using it to set up their own companies to supply the largest growing market in the world. So I think for these and various other reasons there is some hope for high end manufacturing in Europe and the US.

Norf Tyrone · October 30, 2007, 09:32:20 PM

It's a fairly decent package to be fair. Probably as good as it gets.