If you’re passing by Bathgate on the M8 Motorway, you will see a row of Grassy Pyramids in the landscape to the North side of the Road. Behind these is the Pyramids Business Park’. If you pass the same site at Easter Inch on the A89 that runs parallel to the North, you will see a Big long building with a glassy front. This building was originally built as the Motorola factory in 1992 and brought not only Jobs to the area, but hope.

Motorola – A New Hope for West Lothian

When locals to the area speak about the building or its surrounding area, they often say ‘The Motorola Building’. Even though the company hasn’t been there for over a quarter of a century. Even when it was in operation, the Motorola plant only operated for 9 years. The fact that the name has stuck goes to show the strength of feeling people had towards the enterprise at the time and the legacy it left behind.

A New Hope with New Investment

In 1992, the American mobile phone manufacturing firm, Motorola turned it’s eyes toward Scotland. They were looking at sites to construct and operate their European operations which would of course, provide Job Opportunities for Thousands of Scottish People. Sites were chosen throughout Scotland . One of the sites selected for assembly of these new mobile phones was Easter Inch near Bathgate. On the land next door to the former British Leyland plant at Wester Inch that had sparked a huge growth to the districts population in the 1960’s.

The Opening of the Factory Meant Jobs

When the factory opened in 1992, it brought a whole load of Jobs to the people of West Lothian. For young adults leaving school, it was a huge opportunity. The factory had Two Main Departments – Manufacturing and Distribution. The manufacturing department offered skills and training in electronics and telecommunications whilst the distribution wing also offered a whole load of jobs too.

The Closure didn’t necessarily mean Redundancies

In the Old days, the sting of losing your Job for the workers of a closing down factory were usually comforted a little bit at least with a redundancy cheque. If the worker was lucky enough to have another job to walk into, then it could even turn out to be financially beneficial. But by the turn of the millennium, things were quickly changing on that note and it was really only a few of the thousands of workers that saw any redundancy money.

You see, many employers, especially large multinationals like Motorola had started to use Employment agencies for the drafting in of staff. That way they could just as easily cut them loose when it suited them without having to worry about Industrial disputes or redundancy payments. They could simply just not Include the workers name on the workers list.

The use of Employment Agencies by workers had been becoming fashionable through the 90’s leading up to this. Many of the Older hands would warn against them claiming that they were Undoing everything people had fought for. The closure of Motorola marked a time when this truth was just starting to hammer home to most. A Truth that became todays everyday reality in the workplace and employment.

Repurposing of the Motorola Building

Since Motorola pulled out in 2001, the New Hi-tech building that they built for the plant has been repurposed several times over the years for various Industrial and Business ventures.

Inland Revenue

For several years after Motorola left, the building was used as a Tax Office for the Inland Revenue. But, In 2013, a decision was made to reorganise the structure of how the Physical offices of the department worked. New plans were drawn up and the Easter Inch branch closed down with its staff relocated to Livingston and Edinburgh.

Vaccination Centre

The building lay empty for a little while after the Tax Office relocated. But with the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in 2019, empty buildings were exactly what the government needed to dispense the vaccinations from. So the old Motorola building atb Easter Inch was Once again in use, this time as a Vaccination centre,

Film Studio

The building that is the former site of Motorola is now being used as a film studio.