“Intel is getting worse every day, I’m three years on the same salary. Some people are quitting their jobs in Intel, which is making it even worse.”
This is according to Milos Jovanovic (37), a lab technician from Serbia who has been working for a subcontractor at the Intel plant in Leixlip for the last 3½ years.
“We need to fight for our rights but I don’t think Intel are going to change their policy. I’m looking for another job at the moment,” he says.
There was an atmosphere of uncertainty around Leixlip with the news that the global chipmaker is due to announce plans to cut more than a fifth of its staff globally.
A local worker not employed by Intel and who did not wish to be named felt the news brought very gloomy portents: “It’s going to affect some amount of people, Intel is a huge company in Ireland, it won’t be ideal for the world.”
In the Ryebrook Industrial Estate across the road from the plant a businessman who also does business with Intel took both the local and global view: “It’s disappointing, hopefully our end isn’t affected too badly, but if you look at the tariffs, it will affect us down the line,” said the man who declined to be named. “A lot of the local area does business with them, it only goes down the line.”
Asked whether he thought that the local area was too dependent on Intel he felt that the whole country is dependent on such companies: “There are three or four big companies and I would hate to see them pull out completely. I think the Government’s hands are tied but I would’ve liked to think that they would’ve hedged their bets a long time ago.”
[ Intel to announce plans this week to cut over 20% of staffOpens in new window ]
Also across the road from the plant is a pop-up coffee stand where Thomas Shanley (22), an employee for the last 3½ years with Pentagon Technologies, which is a subcontractor with Intel, sips on his coffee.
“The group I’m in, we do protocol, we ensure that people are gowning up properly when they are going into a clean room,” he says.
While Shanley is not directly affected by today’s news he is wary of potential knock-on effects: “If it affects Intel’s budget, what’s to stop them digging into their contracts? If you look at their stocks they have been steadily declining – that’s the proof that they’ve had to make the cuts they are making.”
Some are not so concerned at today’s news, however.
“It’s all middle management, the excess, it’s the [United] States [that will be affected], Ireland is safe,” says an Intel worker, who preferred not to be a named, at a bus stop in front of the plant.
Airidas Voronovas (35), a manager with Leixlip Car Service, also in the Ryebrook Industrial Estate, says he has seen similar fluctuations in Intel’s fortunes: “I’m here 15 years, it’s happening every few years, there were redundancies last year, they got to leave their jobs, some people were not happy in there as much as I know, I don’t have a problem with them.”
Intel offered both voluntary redundancy and early retirement options to staff last August as the parent group looked to cull 15 per cent of its headcount globally.
For another worker in the Ryebrook Industrial Estate, who did not wish to be identified, the new Fab 34 chipmaking facility at the plant may spare the Leixlip plant from any job cuts: “You’d hope that Leixlip would hold on to as many jobs as possible.”
