Talks are to begin on Monday in an attempt to avert a major dispute at Tara Mines. The company has warned the 600-strong workforce that it intends to introduce changes aimed at reducing costs by 15 per cent on Tuesday, with or without the agreement of the trade unions.
The board of the Finnish-owned company is to meet on Thursday to review the mine's future.
The Labour Relations Commission is to put proposals to Monday's meeting aimed at bridging the gap between the company and unions on the changes required to make the mine profitable.
SIPTU regional secretary Mr Jack O'Connor, who represents most of the workforce, described the situation yesterday as "very grim". He said that the unions had offered concessions that could yield £1.5 million in savings, as opposed to the £1.8 million sought by the company.
The mine's new human resources manager, Mr John Kelly, rejected union claims that the company wanted to close the mine because of low zinc prices but he said that it had to bring operating costs below $1,000 dollars a tonne to survive. At present it costs $1,150 a tonne to extract zinc concentrate at the Navan site.
The LRC has convened Monday's talks after a week of intensive negotiations which broke down on May 21st. Mr Kelly said the company was not optimistic about the LRC intervention. The company was "going along", but the deadline for introducing radical new work practices had not been moved, he said.
The company lost $20.8 million last year and $5 million this year to the end of April. "We can't allow that rate of loss to continue. It's not the intention of the company to close the mine. We want to keep it open but we can't do that under the current system." The chairman of the craft group at Tara, Mr Eamonn Devoy, said he believed the company was serious but added that its proposals "are not workable without reasonable modifications. We look forward to resolving our differences on Monday".
However it is the miners at Tara, SIPTU members, who face the biggest changes. The company wants to switch from the present 39-hour week for men working underground, Monday to Friday, to a four-day roster, operating seven days a week. It also wants to reduce the basic hourly rate.
Tara Mines says that production time could be increased by 23.5 per cent and the miners, who earn up to £40,000 a year, could maintain overall earnings through increased productivity.
Mr O'Connor said that "throughout the talks we indicated our amenability to significant changes in working time, significant changes in miners' standard hourly rates. So much so that of £1.8 million the company says it needs we identified changes that we calculated could save £1.5 million. "Quite frankly, the company side rubbished those changes. We have formed a view that the company is not working for a settlement."