Unite Members Learned Of Job Losses By Video Link

Edwards, the Crawley based vacuum technology company, told 220 workers that the company was to move its manufacturing operations overseas - by video link!

The boss of the company dened it was a cost cutting excecise.

Semiconductor manufacturing will be transferred from its UK site a factory in South Korea, while general vacuum manufacturing, which is used in chemical and pharmaceutical processes, will switch from Burgess Hill to a factory in the Czech Republic.

The company, owned by CCMP Capital Advisors and Unitas, an Asian fund, currently employs about 1,000 people in Sussex and 3,000 globally.

Unite Regional Officer Janet Henney said "Members working at the company were “devastated” after staff learning of the cuts on a video message. This is another example of the UK skilled manufacturing base being decimated for the benefit of a profit-driven private equity company. They have paid little regard to the UK economy, our skills base and least of all to those who have to go home today and tell their families of their loss.”