The writing has been on the wall at Lite-On for months, writes Ron MacKenna.
At Christmas the firm made up to 100 people redundant and stopped the night shift.
One worker said yesterday: ''It was basically presented as if the best workers were being kept on and the company would get stronger because of that. To be honest, people generally accepted that line and got on with things.''
The step, significant in hindsight, did not get much coverage and to the rest of the world the Taiwanese firm was moving towards its stated intention of having a workforce of 1000 people.
''It's true that the numbers of staff didn't increase in the way the company predicted,'' said another worker. ''That's not something you think about. If people were aware of the fact that there was nowhere near 1000 people employed, they didn't mention it and the figure was probably just put down to media hype.''
The Taiwanese managers were generally popular although communication was a problem. ''There were real problems with the language for them which meant we didn't really know as much as we should have,'' said an employee.
Concern grew when staff switched from assembling monitors to repairing them. But it was not until the vice-chairman arrived at the beginning of this week that the rumour mill went into overtime. By yesterday, the workers' worst fears were realised.
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