Sell-outs: Kimberly-Clark took £12m grant - and now axes 500 at Barton-upon-Humber factory

“My husband has worked for this company since it opened and hearing the news that he is to be made redundant in March has had a devastating blow to him and his colleagues. He is a proud man and is trying to be as positive about the future as he can. Obviously he is worried that he wont get employment in the future having never being out of work. But after reading some of the comments on here I cant believe some of you can be so insensitive. Come on they have been told they are loosing their jobs. None of the workers have gone to the papers and stood outside the premises wanting public sympathy. They all know nothing can be done and are facing up to the fact. But it seems other than the employers at Kimberly-Clark are making more of an issue about the closure. Let them be the ones to worry. As the the country being officially out of recession I think not, this is just the beginning.”

“jimrhod.. take a look you at yourself, at not a game, this peoples lifes... one word starts with t and ends in t....”

“On a day when we are told that the 'recession is over' by the London massive, we now learn that yet another large business in this area is to close, which will have massive implications for our local economy. Perhaps Cameron, Osborne, Alexander et al, would like to travel North of Birmingham and rejoice with us? I will put the bunting out and we will have a right royal knees-up. Hurrah!”

“Its an unfortunate fact that private industries are not actually part of the Welfare system and so its a bit bizarre for Turner to have a go and to imply the sole function of business,whether theyre losing money/failing or not,is to keep people in work. Thats harking back to the nationalised dinosaurs of the 70s that haemmorhaged money simply to keep employment up.

As for the grant,and that goes for the cash put towards the Siemens scheme,firms need incentives,once given them they can start trading in areas theyd never have moved into,providing jobs/taxes for the time they are able to trade.

Unlike Blair/Brown UK Ltd-who borrowed Britain into oblivion to fund their welfare bonanza to sweeten the voter base-when private firms go in the red,they have to cease trading.

As usual Turner/Johnson in their typically tasteless partisan fashion,seek political capital and votes from the tragedy of joblosses. Speaking of whom, Labour still is still dodging the bullet of telling us of their secret alternative to austerity/balancing the nations books-wheres your extra billions to come from,Turner/Johnson?”

“t8yman.Great idea in theory but ultimately you end up the loser.I'm afraid it's got to the stage where the corner shop cannot compete with the big boys anymore.

In the current economic climate every penny's a prisoner,paying over the odds won't help our weekly budgets will it?”

“"some were upset"”

“It is ridiculous to state that "I gave 20yrs of my life to the firm or to say the "the workforce thought they had jobs for life",however I know how it feels when a firm decides to close up and go for the cheaper option to keep shareholders happy. The last firm I worked for was taken over and made most of us redundant last august after effectively conning us in to working overtime for NOTHING. Not for flat rate but NO rate at all to avoid job losses,which came after all and upset many long term colleagues of mine. I was not bothered even after 20yrs but some where upset partly for obvious reasons,partly because the firm was keeping their customer base,but with a different and surely cheaper workforce.”

“a lot of righteousness going on in here. how many people here buy big brand items from corporations and huge retailers? most of us I assume.
I am personally going to put as many pounds into the pockets of small local businesses as I can from now on. this city is being deserted by the corporations. we can make a difference. voting might not make much difference to the way this country is being misrun - but our wallets have a lot of power.”

“Bouncy-Bouncy - In making my remark about this local tragedy, I did not suggest that it was the fault of the ruling ConDem shower though they have been directly responsible for many other employment tragedies. More careful reading is advisable in future my right wing friend.
Yours fraternally,
Neil”

“NeilTheasby - How is this the Governments fault? Kimberly-Clark are a global/MNC. They are pulling the products made at this site from the UK market. Now unless the government have banned babies from s******g in anything other than Pampers, i'm not sure how the names in question are responsible?

There is a wider world beyond Hull, funnily enough. The country as a whole has a shrinking number of unemployed, green shoots of an economy returning to growth, yet the staunch Lie-bourites stil insist that the facts are all massaged, lies, spin yadda yadda (but any negative stats are always bang on the money, aren't they)

McCain are steamlining their workforce in an efficiency drive - Something all businesses do. Seven Seas management were incompetant fools who got complacent and let the competition swallow them up in a strong market. Kimberly-Clark are concentrating on more lucrative global markets. None of this is attributable to austerity or the coalition as a whole.

Anyway, lets vote the champagne socialists back in and watch the economy unravel again! Enjoy it, won't you!”