‘Being made redundant is just an empty feeling’

CHARLIE QUINN quit the construction industry 13 years ago and jumped at the opportunity of a job in Unifi.

“I was a happy man then when I landed the job,” he said. “It was Heaven. At that time, everybody was keen to work in Unifi and it was very hard to get in.

“The staff were very well looked after and we had a great sports and social club where, every three months, somebody would walk away with £15,000 from a draw.

“We had a great relationship between the management and the workers.”

A plasterer by trade, Tyrone-born Charlie said: “Compared to the building industry where there was no guarantee of work, holidays and no prospect at that time of a pension, coming to work in Unifi was a real change.

“The conditions here were good and the pay much better than being on the sites,” said Charlie, who worked in the factory floor’s inspection area.

But the 50-year-old said his prospects of obtaining new employment are bleak. “We will complete outstanding orders but we’re all out of here by October.

“My main concern is the family, aged from 20 down to seven years. There’s one at college, two at secondary school and two in national school. I’m worried now about getting them through college. It’s not going to be easy. ”

Charlie said he and his wife Marjorie decided to abandon plans for a summer holiday. “It’s the least of our worries,” he said. “I often wondered what it would feel like to be made redundant - now, it’s just an empty feeling.”

He said there was speculation about job cuts at the plant but no-one anticipated a shutdown.

“People were talking about it in recent weeks and there were suggestions we could be having an extended summer holiday, at the worst. But it’s news to us that it was going to close.”

Charlie, who lives at Drumkeen about nine miles from the Letterkenny plant, said he has no plans to return to the building industry.

“There’s still a boom in construction but I couldn’t face it now,” he said. “There’s little hope of a job in Letterkenny and, most likely, I’ll have to travel a bit further to get work.”