Talks to avert the imminent closure of AIBP's six meat processing plants in the Republic take place today. Unions at the plants received permission to place all-out pickets from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions on Tuesday and have served a week's notice on the company.
If the dispute escalates, 650 employees will be laid off. At present, about 300 are on strike. Union and company representatives are meeting under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission in Portlaoise to try to end the month-old strike by unionised staff. The action has disrupted business, but AIBP has been able to maintain production at most plants through the use of non-union labour.
If the all-out picket goes ahead, agricultural officers will not be able to report for duty to check plants are complying with Department of Agriculture regulations. The plants in Waterford, Rathkeale, Clones, Bandon, Nenagh and Cahir operate under Department licence.
The workers want a redundancy package of four weeks per year of service plus statutory entitlements to allow them to seek work elsewhere.
Workers at the Waterford plant have been on short-time working since December due to the BSE crisis.
The foot-and-mouth crisis has aggravated the situation. The unions claim work culling cattle has been diverted to non-union agency employees.
SIPTU national industrial officer Mr John Kane said yesterday Dawn Meats had provided a redundancy package for workers wishing to leave and he hoped AIBP would respond positively today. Alternative employment had been offered to employees laid off because of BSE or foot-and-mouth, according to a company spokesman, but only a small number availed of the offer. The company had spent "too much time and resources to build up a workforce in each of our plants to contemplate losing them if this could be avoided".