Globalisation ruining workers’ job security

The very sobering suggestion, if that is all it really was, from IDA chief executive Barry O’Leary yesterday that workers at the Bausch + Lomb plant in Waterford have little option but to carefully consider the take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum put to them this week by the company’s new owners must send another shiver down the spines of the 161,000 workers employed by foreign firms.

If the truth be told, the grim situation faced by the Bausch + Lomb staff resonates with nearly every worker in the private sector where job security is more often than not a fond memory from another, seemingly less cut-throat time.

The grim choice between greatly reduced wages or unemployment is not unusual but it cuts to the bone every time. What is an entirely legitimate accountancy exercise for an employer is a life-defining, more often than not a life-draining, experience for cornered workers, especially those working in an economy where unemployment hovers near 12%.