Union official demands action on jobs crisis

PAYING lip service, at the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis, to the jobs crisis in the manufacturing industry in Kerry was not enough, a trade union official warned yesterday.

SIPTU’s Andrew McCarthy said it was time action was taken to deal with a “dire situation” as thousands of jobs had been lost in Kerry in recent years.

The Kerry-based official said: “Jobs are disappearing all the time and there’s absolutely nothing coming in.”

Mr McCarthy listed a number of factory closures including Sport Socks Ltd, Transmould, Sara Lee, Coca Cola and Scott Tools and the transfer of the 300-job Alps Electric plant from Killarney to Millstreet.

He also said up to 30 jobs would be lost in forthcoming redundancies at Klinge and Fujisawa in Killorglin.

According to the Irish Business and Employers’ Confederation, 2,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in Kerry in the past five years.

Mr McCarthy said new structures should be put in place to support the needs of manufacturing industry in Kerry.

He also said the whole issue of globalisation needed to be looked at and the Government should reconsider the current unrestricted access of non-national workers to Ireland.

“This massive influx of overseas workers is displacing Irish workers and worsening the conditions of workers here. It’s a huge race to the bottom,” he said.

“Every other country seems to have a policy on immigration and there’s definitely a need to tighten things up as far as this country is concerned.”

Mr McCarthy said Kerry’s manufacturing base was gradually diminishing and many of the jobs being created, especially in the call centre and tourism service industries, did not pay as well as those in manufacturing.

“What we really need are solid industrial jobs, but things are not just happening in that area,” he stated.