‘Voters will not forget how workers were shortchanged’

MAURICE SHORTALL worked at Comerama for almost 30 years.

The ghost of the once-booming textiles plant still haunts him and his 162 former colleagues since the factory closed a year ago.

Just before Christmas 2002, 163 workers were handed their P45s following a slump in demand for the yarn products manufactured there. Mr Shortall was part of a delegation to Government buildings in Dublin within the past fortnight which was due to meet Tánaiste Mary Harney.

Instead, the workers met Junior Minister Michael Ahern. Mr Shortall, who will be a Labour party candidate in the local elections in June 2004, is disappointed that a clear commitment and promise to the workers was broken.

“We were told that we would benefit from the new statutory redundancy package of two weeks per year of service, but instead we got a quarter of that,” he said.

“Ms Harney must give the former workers the extra 918,000 she had promised at a meeting in December 2002. We now have a document signed by every member of the deputation verifying exactly what the Tánaiste said in December 2002.

“This issue will not go away, it is a Government decision and with the local and European elections due on June 11 2004, I’m sure voters will not forget either,” he concluded.