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Updated: 9:40am
THE CLOSURE OF a Michelin tyre factory in Northern Ireland has been described as a “tragic blow” for the 860 employees set to lose their jobs.
The French company announced yesterday that it will be winding down its plant in Ballymena, Co Antrim, over the next three years, with closure pencilled in for 2018.
The company said it is reorganising its operations across Europe and that its Northern Irish operation has been experiencing difficulties for several years.
The MP for the area, Ian Paisley Jnr, described the news as “apocalyptic” for workers and said the job losses will mean the loss of millions of pounds of wages in north Antrim every year.
“It cannot be overstated how big a blow this is to the manufacturing industry in Northern Ireland,” Paisley said.
Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said they would do everything they could to support those affected by the plant’s closure.
“Just over a year ago the workers of JTI Gallaher in Ballymena received similar news and so this combined with today’s announcement is a real body blow to the local economy,” they said in a joint statement.
‘Downturn in business’
In a statement yesterday, Michelin said its Northern Irish plant has faced difficult logistical issues due to its location, and high production costs due to the price of energy.
Since 2007, it said it has seen a “significant downturn” in business across its European operation – with the market decreasing by more than 5 million tyres.
The group currently employs 65,000 people across 40 production sites in Europe.
The company stated that its Antrim plant is “not capable of making the high tech tyres of the future”, and that upgrades to machinery would be prohibitively expensive.
Rather than cutting back at all of its European plants, Michelin said it will be focusing its attention on more competitive sites, investing €65 million into UK factories in Stoke-on-Trent and Dundee.
Some €52 million will be invested into the plant in Dundee to upgrade it into a state-of-the-art factory, allowing the manufacturer to produce larger tyres.
Investment at the Stoke-on-Trest plant will see a 53,000 square metre plant built.
Around 100 new jobs will be created across both sites.
First published 3 November. Additional reporting by Catherine Healy.
Bloody disgusting my god what is the world coming too poor kid
What a despicable act of cowardice. Makes me feel sick to my stomach.
I’d love to get a hold of him
Hang him…
What an animal, I hope he is identified and faces the music.
Please dont call him an animal, an animal wouldn’t do that to anyone…
I would pay money to see him get the same!
Horrible cowardly b#stard, sickening to watch
Sickening is the word.
What if he really is sick?? Can’t imagine a sane person behaving like this.. It’s still horrible nevertheless !
What the Hell is wrong with some young people these days.
A dispicable little wa@nker…you can nearly hear him laughing as he was running away….
how do you know he is a young person who did it?
Dunno John…must have missed his zimmerframe in the video..
If they catch this “big brave man” the judge should order him to spent 30mins in an octagon with a few UFC fighters before hauling his pathetic carcass to jail. See how tough he real is. Any man that raises his hand to a woman is a pathetic coward the lowest of the low.
With his hands tied behind his back. I hope they catch him
That is F&€@€ng disgusting. Is there a hashtag. Going? Someone must know who it is.
In his defence the poor guy maybe had a hard upbringing – left school with no qualifications, can’t hold down a job, lot of anger built up the poor little lamb. To be honest I have to admire his bravery – sneaking up behind a 16 year old girl and punching her without warning takes a lot of courage. Lets hope he avoids the maximum 48 hours community service for such a trivial crime and instead gets a 2 week break to the Lake District (at the uk tax payers expense) to show him that crime really doesn’t pay. If he reoffends sure let him off, its nearly Christmas after all. As for the ‘victim’ – she doesn’t count. You MUST look after the criminal before the victim gets a look in. Bit like Ireland’s justice system in a way.
Disgusting animal that’s what he is
Again, an animal wouldn’t behave like that…
he’s the reason why some people should be neutered
and what would neutering do for him.?
so he can’t pass his genes on to another little ASBO sprog who’ll do things like that too.
Id love this b*****d to try this on someone who can defend themselves…id pay good money to see that.
Even if it was someone fairly handy, it’s difficult to act being caught unawares like that.
that is true, there is no defence to a blind side punch… that girl was probably half his weight, she had no chance… if he got hit with the same punch he’d be on the deck too.. cowardly act.
if hes arrested the police should knock the b#lli# out of him and anyone who complains on his behalf should get the same as this poor lady got
…..whoa whoa ..police brutality…so difficult to determine identity through this CCTV sequence…dontcha think old chap!?…..
…..whoa whoa …surely you do not condone police brutality!?….so difficult to determine accurate identity through this brief CCTV sequence…dontcha think old chap Eh!?
…..so the 39 red handlers are confident they could identify the girls attacker from the CCTV clip…..amazing such confidence ….no wonder so many innocent people end up in prison…
if it wasn’t captured camera wouldn’t believe someone capable of such a cowardly act
I agree 100%. I’d never of believed it if I didn’t see for myself. If I was in a jury I would of thought eye witnesses were lying or exaggerating. It really is unbelievable.
Wasn’t that young from what I could tell, someone will know him and they’ll get him!
He will probably get away with it if caught.
his taxpayer funded Lawyers will advise him to claim she said something relating to race .
That is truly the most shocking thing I have ever seen ! That poor girl ! What kind of kick did he get out of that ? I sincerely hope he gets caught and quick before he does it again to some poor Girl or anyone else for that matter ! Unbelievable.
Poor kid, hope she will get over this as I suspect she will struggle to walk on
public for quite some time. As for your man, hope he is caught and locked up for indefinite period with a promise that at some point he will be attacked at some point.
Agreed.. What a B#%D inhuman being he should be hung drawn & quartered and then fed to the most vile animals that exist in the world today..
…..Oh Ms @Mary… “Vilest Animals”…. Purely subjective comment …..not sure which genera they fall under…..back in yer pram dear…..
Mason, can you please form complete sentences like everyone else, thank you.
Wth?
OMG that’s shocking.
What I would love to see happen to this vile coward is not suitable to be typed here on the Journal!
Sub-human afterbirth.
….35 green hands Tool ….scary there are so many of you………whoops carried away …..
Hopefully he will end up in jail and his fellow inmates knowing what he done will sneak up behind him once a week and knock him out. Ten years of that would be sweet.
take both his knees caps clean off
This sh1t happens on the streets of every town at least once a week in Ireland. And some ass of a judge wades in with a suspended sentence or the like! It’s time the people of this country got off their cosy holes and take these judges to task over their solution to this problem. I don’t care, mr judge, if there’s not enough space for him in prison. That’s not your problem – it’s the minister for justices problem! People, one of these days this victim will be your son, daughter, brother or sister and you will wish the fcuk you had done something before it to make sure it does not happen to anyone else! Wake up people!!!
bastard
Insane carry on is anybody safe ffs
Sickening, Any word on the poor girl. She was out cold before she hit the ground. I would gladly kick the shit out of the coward that done this. He thinks he is a man hitting a girl
I’m in total shock. The trauma the precious brain must have suffered is sickening…Really hope she recovers fully and that they catch him!
They’re looking for the attacker on the news so I’m pretty sure it’s real. She dropped like a rag doll cos that blow knocked her unconscious. They have a pretty clear picture of the attacker so hopefully he will be caught. Frankly jail is too much of an easy ride for this ar$eh•le. Put him in stocks and let the public pelt rotten fruit at him. And have this vid playing in the background to keep people’s anger lovely and fresh.
34 year old man arrested in connection with the assault according to Sky News this morning. Nice one !!
Brutal violent acts against women seem to be on rise.
How do they know it was unprovoked? Horrible all the same.
You’ve got to be kidding me, what exactly does a person have to do to provoke this type of reaction, look at him the ‘wrong’ way?? The force he hit her with is unbelievable, thank god he didn’t succeed in injuring her seriously, unfortunately I doubt she will be mentally unscarred.
Well, for example if someone harmed my younger sister I’d probably knock them clean out too, even if it was a girl. I was simply asking how do we know it was unprovoked.
My god
Don’t you worry he’ll be got
Sickening act if ever
What a bollocks ! She hit the ground quite hard too – hope she wasn’t too injured.
That video doesn’t look real, she hit the ground like a shop dummy. That’s horrible if this footage is real
She was knocked out by the punch !! Thats why she fell like that!
If you’ve ever watched someone get knocked out in boxing or UFC, you’d know that’s how they fall. You lose all control of muscles etc, so you fall like a dummy.
Pretty sure if you got a belt like that you’d fall the same way too Anne!
Police have arrested a Man today in connection with the attack..
the poor girl that is shocking, if they catch him i think they should let her dad lose on him
before I even clicked play, I new it would be black. How did I know? Wake up, White man.
re look at slow motion, it looks like the arm he hit her with is not real, it doesn’t bend after attack, if that true that blow could have broken her neck
what an absolute a**hole
before I even clicked play, I new it would be black. Wake up, White man.
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