text: On Tuesday, the firm said that it would close the Ballymena factory by 2018, with the loss of 860 jobs.
  The business support agency, Invest NI, has also said it will work with the company and others to help the staff.
  Workers have been given time off after Tuesday's announcement and are due back in the factory on Thursday.
  The Ballymena factory has been in operation since 1969 and is a major employer in the area.
  Staff, union representatives and politicians have described the planned run-down of the plant as "devastating".
  David Thompson from the union, Unite, said he was still waiting to hear from the Enterprise Minister, Jonathan Bell, after meeting him in July in relation to concerns around the future of the plant.
  In response, Mr Bell said: "I've been speaking with people that are badly affected and what they're telling me is they're not interested in 'he said, she said' nonsense.
  "I accept what David has said, it was a generalised meeting, we both accepted there is a major problem here, and we both accept that nothing we could have done from that meeting in July would have saved the Michelin plant. I want to meet with David, I want to meet with Unite, I want to meet with them constructively."
  Stephen Kelly, from Manufacturing Northern Ireland, said the main factor for the closure is energy costs.
  He said it was time for the executive to commit to a manufacturing strategy.
  "Michelin made it really clear, the local management have not been behind the door in telling our local assembly and others that the energy issue was something that was hurting them enormously and what we've seen yesterday, unfortunately, is too little and too late, for Michelin to secure that plant for the next 20 years," he said.
  Speaking in the Commons, Prime Minister David Cameron said companies deemed to be energy intensive should qualify for reductions in power bills due to his policies.
  He was responding to a question from the DUP MP Nigel Dodds about the role energy prices played in the closure of the Michelin plant.
  Mr Cameron also reminded MPs that legislation had been passed to enable Northern Ireland to set its own rate of corporation tax and that the sooner there was a political deal the sooner action could be taken to build a stronger private sector.
target: Politicians have said they will meet Michelin management within days to see how they can reduce the impact of the tyre factory closure in County Antrim.