SIPTU has condemned the US owners of the Square D manufacturing plant in east Galway for the speed with which they intend to close the company at a cost of 385 jobs.
A meeting between SIPTU and the company's management lasted all of 10 minutes late last week, when the company rejected an appeal by the union to postpone or avert full closure of the plant.
Ms Tish Gibbons, of SIPTU, said that the union did not believe orders had dropped to the extent that full closure was justified. "Our information is that one line of manufacturing in this plant had enough orders to sustain 50 to 100 jobs to the end of this year," Ms Gibbons said. The union asked the representatives of Square D's parent company, Schneider Electric, to review their decision or to extend the transition period to closure. However, the company says that it intends to shut the plant by June.
The loss of almost 400 jobs in Ballinasloe will have a devastating impact on a town already disadvantaged, and which experienced the loss of over 200 jobs when A.T. Cross closed over two years ago, the union says. "This community simply cannot sustain a closure on this scale and at this speed," Ms Gibbons told The Irish Times.
The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, is due to meet a delegation of business representatives from the town early this week. Last week, she expressed her "shock" at the closure and said that she would support decentralisation of a Government Department to Ballinasloe while cautioning that any decision on this would be a Cabinet one.
IDA Ireland has said that it is "determined" to secure new opportunities and has denied that it was aware last September of the company's imminent closure.
The company is offering severance of five weeks per year of service plus statutory redundancy. However, SIPTU says there has been no consultation on this and it had no mandate to accept such a deal on behalf of the membership.
