Nearly 300 workers at an east Belfast seat belt manufacturing plant were today made redundant.
Shocked staff at the European Component Corporation factory in Dundonald were told of the job cuts just before they finished for the weekend.
Bosses have blamed the downturn in the car industry for the decision to lay off a third of their workforce. The company refused to make any official comment, but one stunned labourer said: "We were expecting to be hit, but not as bad as this.
"This will have a devastating effect on the local economy because the majority of the workers would be from the east Belfast catchment area".
Union officials will talk to management on Monday to agree on who should be laid off. The plant is one of the biggest employers in east Belfast, with more than 800 making components. But it is understood 296 jobs will go between March and August.
Out of these 140 will be agency employees with the rest being made up of full-time staff and maintenance workers.
The announcement came as the last vessel expected to be built at troubled east Belfast shipyard, the Anvil Pointferry, was officially named.