'It's like I'm losing part of me': Goodyear worker clocks off for final time after 28 years

After 28 years service and around 5,000 shifts, Wayne Devaney has walked away from Wolverhampton's Goodyear plant for the final time.

He is one of more than 300 workers whose jobs have been axed with activity due to stop altogether next year.

The closure will bring to an end a 90-year affiliation between the firm and the city. In one way or another, Wayne has experienced half of that.

As a young lad he went to Oxley Primary School which stands next to the Goodyear plant in Bushbury Lane.

He fondly recalls standing at railings watching wagons drive in and out. His dad, Michael, toiled away inside in his role as an engineer.

During this time he would attend company socials, pantomimes and sport days. He was already part of the extended 'Goodyear family.'

Just years after his dad was made redundant in the late 1970s, Wayne joined the plant as a key operator working weekend shifts.

He soon took on a full-time role and later switched to mould installation.

For the past 12 years he has worked as a Banbury driver, operating the machine which mixes the ingredients necessary to make a tyre.

It's quite a history. Wayne considers his co-workers his family - and leaving them has been tough.

"I've loved every minute I worked there," he said.

"I don't think it was Goodyear which made the family, it was the men who made it.

"You knew each other so well. We were like brothers. I knew them better than my own brother at the time.

"Everybody knew how to make everybody else's tea. We would all share our problems with each other.

"Even now guys who left there 12 years ago still get in touch with me."

Wayne, aged 53, of Yale Drive, Wednesfield, saw a lot change in his time at Goodyear.

For much of his 28 years the plant has been in decline, with cheaper foreign competition and a shrinking market gradually eroding operations.

Following a deal with developer St Modwen, the site was sold in 2002 and plans later drawn up that saw Goodyear shrink the site to just 18 acres, with the entrance moved to Bushbury Lane and the rest was turned into a new housing estate.

It was around that time Wayne first faced the threat of redundancy - but with two days left to work he was asked to stay on.

Goodyear continued to invest in the plant, most recently unveiling a £6 million development in 2012, in the hope of turning around the factory's fortunes.

But it was not to be and last year, for the second time, Wayne discovered his job was being axed. This time there would be no reprieve.

Bosses say they were left with no alternative but to close the site due to its lack of competitiveness and a need to reduce costs.

But a report leaked to the Express & Star said bosses at the firm did not do enough to try and save the business.

The report by industry experts Syndex UK says that bosses failed to demonstrate the business was loss-making and took 'a passive approach' to seeking new buyers.

It left a bad taste in the mouth for many workers, including Wayne.

"I heard over Facebook it was closing," he said. "My wife told me.

"I said 'you're joking, why have they not told us?' I felt an incredible amount of anger.

"Even when we went to work, we were not told face-to-face. There was just a notice on the clock explaining they proposed to close the plant.

"When I got out the next morning I saw one of the lads talking to the media. He choked up and now I was talking.

"Everything I felt just went whoosh out of my mouth. I said we have rebuilt this factory from the floor up. People have built walls, offices, repainted the place top to bottom.

"With all the investment we thought we had turned the corner. We couldn't believe it was happening before our eyes. It was unbelievable."

From speaking to the media almost by accident, Wayne went on to take a leading role in the fight to save the plant.

He tried all the traditional methods including collecting hundreds of names on a petition.

But he also took the extraordinary step of writing to US President Barack Obama.

There were messages of support from fellow workers as far away as Australia, Mexico and Malaysia.

And he ended up exchanging tweets with Beverley Knight, being backed by former Wolves striker Mel Eves and becoming close friends with Gerry Markey who was fighting as part of the Justice for Clerys workers campaign over in Ireland.

The campaign to save the plant in Wolverhampton has since admitted defeat and Wayne has now worked his final shift.

"It is so hard," he said. "I did well up every time someone shook my hand.

"It's like I'm losing part of me. It's like part of me disappearing.

"You think 'I'm never going to make a cup of tea for him again. I'll never hear him moan about the amount of sugar in his tea again.'

"It was overwhelming and it all accumulated in that last shift. I walked in and walked down to clock in and I did it in slow motion just so could I remember how it felt."

Like many of the other workers facing an uncertain future, Wayne has been looking for a new job.

The city council has been working with Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Job Centre Plus, and City of Wolverhampton College to offer support.

And in November a special jobs fair was held at Wolverhampton Racecourse.

But so far nothing has been the right fit and Wayne admits he is unsure what he will do next.

He has decided to take some time off, having not had a holiday in the last 11 years.

And he set about creating a scrapbook of his fond memories from his time at Goodyear.

What he refuses to do is to spend anymore of his time being angry with the firm's hierarchy.

His intention is to remember the best of Goodyear.

"I was angry at first, I must admit," he said, "I was very angry and frustrated with it all. At times I could have tore strips off some of those high-up.

"But then one of the managers at the plant took me to one side and said 'think of all the great memories. Don't allow the last six months to taint the 28 years which have gone before.'

"I read a quote too by Martin Luther King. It said 'I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.' That's pretty bang on where I am at."