Some workers said they had expected the bad news before the official announcement.
One despatch worker, a father of three, said Seagate's decision to bring Malaysian workers to train at the Limavady plant recently had told its own story. "We knew it was coming, I thought we would have been finished today but things are still going on for a few months yet. There are people younger than me working here, they have more to gripe about."
He said a team was being assembled to negotiate a redundancy package on behalf of the workers who have no union. "The workers thought it would be better to bring in someone from the outside because we have no great experience. It's a sad day, but that's life."
Other employees were taken aback by the announcement. Kamila Dziadosz, a 27-year-old worker from Poland, was recruited by an agency to work at Seagate. She had learned English especially to move to Northern Ireland. "I did not know this was coming . . . There are more than 100 workers from Poland here, we all came for the money. I don't know what I am going to do now."
Marie McWilliams was not hopeful of finding a new job. "There just aren't jobs in the north-west so we don't know what or where we are gong to go next."
Asked if staff were angry when informed of the decision, she said: "Very much so, there were plenty shouting and roaring in there. They felt that the management weren't really giving too much information across. Quite a few said they didn't trust the management and they asked them for details of the redundancy which the management didn't answer. In saying that, the management have done their best for us but our jobs are going and that's that. It's official now."