Former Galtee Meats workers and pig farmers from north Cork yesterday called on the major multiples to boycott Galtee Meats products as the firm's parent company announced it was to close a cheese processing plant in Mitchelstown with the loss of 25 jobs.
Some 50 former workers and pig producers gathered outside the gates of the Galtee Meats plant in Mitchelstown to launch the final phase of a boycott campaign as the pigmeat processing plant closed for the final time with the loss of 50 jobs.
Galtee Meats is owned by Breeo Foods, a subsidiary of Dairygold spin-off Reox Holdings. Save Galtee Action Group chairman, and Cork East Fianna Fáil TD Ned O'Keeffe, accused Dairygold chief executive Jerry Henchy of destroying the local food industry.
"Jerry Henchy is a failure; he has destroyed the whole fabric of the co-operative movement and he has destroyed this town." he said.
"All he has achieved is redundant workers and redundant pig farmers, he has wrecked Mitchelstown and left us with a ghost town," he added.
Within hours of the group's protest, Breeo Foods issued a statement confirming it is to close the cheese processing plant in Mitchelstown over the coming few weeks with the expected loss of some 20 jobs.
Breeo Foods blamed the closure on "poor production competitiveness, a high cost base, work place inflexibility and an extremely competitive market with overcapacity" which made it no longer viable to continue process cheese production at the Clonmel Road plant in the town.
