Union demands emergency Government jobs summit

Union chiefs tonight called on the Government to hold an emergency jobs summit following the spate of losses in the Mid-West and Cork.

Some 360 posts were axed this week as companies, including cosmetics giant Procter & Gamble, announced plans to shift operations out of Ireland to low-cost bases.

Since the start of the year more than 2,500 jobs have been lost or are under threat.

Michael O'Reilly, regional secretary of the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers Union, described the losses as a crisis.

The union leader also warned action had to be taken quickly to prevent the potential collapse of manufacturing here.

"We need the Government to bring together all the social partners, their own agencies and politicians from across the party divide," he said.

"We have to address the escalating job losses in manufacturing so as to guard against the potential collapse of our enterprise base."

Yesterday, Procter & Gamble said it was moving manufacturing of some of its products out of Tipperary to Poland. That was followed by Cork-based Bourn Electronics outlining plans to cut 80 jobs and move operations to Hungary and Mexico.

Both firms are taking advantage of cheaper labour costs.

Mr O'Reilly claimed other EU countries like Sweden continue to operate a healthy export sector.

"What we are desperately lacking is urgency. We need to sit down now with agencies such as the IDA, Enterprise Ireland, FÁS, local development boards and all others that contribute to enterprise development," he said.

"In addition, opposition political parties should be involved. This is a national crisis and requires a national response. Our leaders and their aspiring successors should get serious on this, and stop concentrating on auction politics in the run to an election.

"People in Nenagh, Limerick and around the country want to hear specific proposals to promote growth, create quality high skill jobs and maintain high levels of employment.

"There is no room for complacency. For every job lost in the export-manufacturing sector, several more are lost in downstream manufacturing and service sectors. Added to that is the loss of household and community revenue and our skill base."