SIPTU YESTERDAY said it had begun a formal process of consultation with Bitech Engineering in Co Louth, which has announced it is to close, with the loss of 200 jobs.
It is a subsidiary of Glen Dimplex, one of the world’s largest producers of electrical products.
The closure will have a significant impact on both Dunleer village, where it established in 1978, and on the surrounding area.
According to Siptu regional secretary John King, the wage bill would have been around €5 million a year, based on an average wage of €25,000.
The company last year told him it wanted to meet the union to “to get involved in consultations on a survival plan that would have seen it cease manufacturing here and there would have been significant redundancies”.
He said the remaining staff were being asked to relocate to a sister company, Chilten Electric, also based in Dunleer, but were being asked to take a 20 per cent cut in wages.
“The workers rejected that, and the company at board level decided not to proceed with the plan. They could have referred this to the Labour Relations Commission or asked the Labour Court for assistance, but chose not to do that.”
Mr King said there was still hope that some of the jobs could be saved, and said the union also wanted to get “a fair and decent” redundancy package for staff.
He acknowledged the company was facing challenging times because of the recession and both a downturn in production and the increase in the value of sterling.
Media inquiries were being met by a “no comment” from the company.
Deputy Fergus O’Dowd (FG) said: “I believe there were options on the table, and workers and management could pursue them to save some of the jobs.
“If it means a short-term sacrifice . . . a job is better than the dole. This closure will have an appalling impact; it is a major employer in the county, and it is unacceptable that this is happening.
“I would ask those involved to return to negotiations and see if anything further can be done,” said Mr O’Dowd.
The closure of Bitech will have a significant knock-on effect on its suppliers.
“I have been a contractor here for 27 years,” said Richie McGeough, a process technician.
“I feel awful about this. We only heard yesterday and it will be gone by the end of the year.
“We have a child with asthma and if we were on the dole we would get a medical card,” he added.
Michael Fee has been a quality control inspector at Bitech for 29 years.
He said: “The past few years has been terrible – we cannot compete with China, and we are struggling against Chinese imports and with sterling.”