Huge job losses at Fruit of the Loom's sewing operations in Donegal have been on the cards for at least two years, although most workers will have become aware of their vulnerability only over the past few months.
The company is expected to be able to outline its plans for the workers involved in the T-shirt sewing operations - of which there are about 800 - before Friday. The news, when it finally comes, will be devastating. Most of the jobs in that operation are expected to be lost.
The announcement will at least remove the cloud of uncertainty which has lingered over the workforce for months.
The jobs will be moved to Morocco in line with the company's policy of shifting its manufacturing operations to low-cost countries.
For months Fruit of the Loom has been openly transferring machinery from its Donegal plants to its operation in Rabat. It now seems it will be only a matter of time before that manufacturing division is expanded to take up the production from the Donegal plants.
The economic reasons for the relocation are simple. In Donegal Fruit of the Loom pays its workers about £200 a week. In Morocco it can achieve the same production for £30 a week.
The Government has seen the writing on the wall since last May, and had made preparations for the establishment of a task force to deal with the expected job losses.
The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, has had numerous meetings with Fruit of the Loom's chief operations officer, Mr Bill Farley, to try to secure as many jobs as possible. IDA Ireland officials have been working closely with the group's senior European management to soften the blow.
Fruit of the Loom operates in the notoriously tough rag trade, where profit margins can be hard to sustain. A publicly quoted company, it is under pressure from its shareholders to produce strong profit growth, and its relocation policy has proved successful in that regard. The brunt of this shift was first felt in the US where Fruit of the Loom laid off thousands of workers, switching production to the Caribbean.
Europe is now the focus of attention. Sales have slumped over the past couple of years, leading to a huge build-up of stocks.
As the group strives to deal with these difficulties, its workforce has already endured much. Apart from periodic bouts of short-time working, employees' fears for their longterm future were inevitably heightened by the gradual departure of the local management team, which had run the Irish operations for almost 20 years.
SIPTU has been calling on Fruit of the Loom to outline its plans for many months now. Its regional secretary, Mr George Hunter, had called on Mr Farley either to tell the workers that were to be laid off that they were to lose their jobs well before Christmas or else to hold the bad news until 1999.