Workers at Waterford Crystal say they will not accept a short-time working plan until they see a "credible" sales and marketing plan and receive guarantees about the security of their jobs, writes Chris Dooley

At meetings in Dungarvan yesterday and Waterford city last night, organised by their union, the ATGWU, workers expressed anger and frustration over the cost-cutting plan announced this week.

Up to 1,450 workers at the company's two Waterford plants - the Kilbarry facility in the city and the smaller factory in Dungarvan - are to lose seven weeks of work over the next seven months, following disappointing sales in the US in July and August.

The decision to introduce short-time working followed a "root-and-branch review" of its business, the company said. It had decided to improve its working capital by reducing inventories "through an orderly sell-off of completed stock and a slowdown of manufacturing".

Its chief executive, Mr John Foley, said the measures being taken would re-establish balance between supply and demand. "The cash freed up by the reduction in working capital will be available for investment in marketing of our brands and stimulating long-term demand," he said.

That assurance, however, appears to have cut little ice with a workforce which says it is tired of bearing the brunt of perceived management failures.

ATGWU regional industrial organiser, Mr Walter Cullen said management had a "huge credibility problem". Short-time working had previously been introduced, he said, in September 2001, to deal with the same dual problem of "high inventory and reduced sales".

At the time, he said, the company told its workers it would never again allow stock surpluses to accumulate, but would only produce what was required to meet orders.

Since then, workers had gone through two further restructuring agreements. In 2002, this involved a number of craft workers being redeployed as general operatives.

Then last year they had agreed to job cuts and work practice changes that reduced the company's cost base by €18 million.

With the final stages of that plan still being implemented, workers were not disposed towards agreeing to further cost-cutting proposals without some guarantees that they would be effective, he said.

To this end, they were seeking as a matter of urgency a "credible and effective" sales and marketing plan from the company, to avoid the necessity for yet another cost-cutting plan in the future.

Two further conditions were also likely to be imposed by workers before they agreed to discuss short-time working, Mr Cullen said. They wanted a commitment on remedial work to the tank furnace at the Dungarvan plant, as well as payment of the wage increases due under the second phase of Sustaining Progress.

The company's failure to carry out major refurbishment of the Dungarvan plant's furnace, which takes place every few years and is due to take place now, has given rise to fears about the plant's long-term future. About 400 workers are employed there.

With the exception of non-craft workers, who received the final phase 2 per cent increase, the company's workforce did not receive the 7 per cent pay increase due under the first 18-month phase of Sustaining Progress.

Mr Cullen said if those conditions were met, the ATGWU, which represents the 1,100 manufacturing workers at the two plants, would discuss the short-time proposals.

"We're committed to taking whatever steps are necessary to ensure the company is a viable operation with the maximum number of jobs for our members."

Mr Donie Fell, a glass blower at the Kilbarry plant who joined the company 34 years ago, said anger was the predominant mood among workers at the latest cost-cutting initiative.

"People are frustrated because they have given so much. They have chopped and changed shifts, which has its consequential effects on your social life and your family life. They feel they have bent over backwards to get the products out and still they [the company\] are not getting it right."

Mr Kevin Moore, an employee at the Dungarvan plant for 30 years and, like Mr Fell, a current union shop steward, claimed there was "a complete lack of confidence" in management's ability to sort out the problems, given that "the ink isn't dry" on the 2003 restructuring.

Mr Foley is currently away and there was nobody from the company available to meet The Irish Times yesterday.

Although no longer Waterford's biggest employer, the company's difficulties are keenly felt by local business interests and the community at large.

Mr Kevin Fennelly, president of Waterford Chamber of Commerce, said the company's well-being was almost a barometer for that of the local community.

It also continued to be a hugely significant employer in terms of job numbers alone. "If Mary Harney came down in the morning and announced 1,400 new jobs, well you can imagine that a lot of people would be very happy."

The loss of even seven weeks' work over seven months, he said, would result in a loss of millions of euros to the local economy.

The most important thing, however, was that the company took whatever action was necessary in order to secure the long-term viability of the enterprise and jobs.