THE two main unions at Packard are to resist attempts by the company to close the Tallaght plant in July, and are to meet with management on Thursday to discuss the situation. Early this morning a Government spokesman said that he expected a detailed Government response to the news of the closure later today.
There was angry reaction last night to news that the company intends to close the Irish plant within three months, with the loss of more than 800 jobs, because it cannot compete with low cost competition from plants in low wage economies.
There are 400 employees still at work in Tallaght. A further 400 have been on temporary lay off since last June. The plant was opened in 1975 with IDA grants of £4.3 million and employed more than 1,000 people up until late 1994, but this figure has been cut by successive lay offs.
The Government was informed yesterday of plans to close the Tallaght plant by senior executives of the parent company, Delphi Packard. The whole group is a subsidiary of General Motors.
Shortly before midnight the following statement was given to The Irish Times by the company.
"The management of Delphi Packard Electric Systems Ireland announces that it has no alternative but to cease operations at its plant in Tallaght and it will close at the end of July this year.
"It is unfortunate that international market forces in the production of electrical harnesses for the automotive industry have dictated this decision", Mr Carlos Ferreira, managing director of the Tallaght plant, said.
"Despite the best efforts of management and workforce, the Tallaght plant has, for some time now, been unable to operate at a competitive level and has sustained losses for the last number of years"
The company acknowledges the "best efforts" of the Irish workforce to save the plant and said everything possible would be done to assist employees through the closure period. It also apologised for the way in which the closure had become public.
Mr Brendan Byrne, SIPTU branch secretary, said last night "We are totally disgusted at the way in which the news was broached". Only two weeks ago the company had given assurances to the unions that they would he presented with a new business plan to maintain jobs at the plant by the end of May.
"We offered the company every facility in relation to keeping the place open and providing maximum productivity", Mr Mick O'Reilly, Irish secretary of the ATGWU, said. He estimated that besides the 800 people directly dependent on Packard for employment there were another 400 employed indirectly in servicing the Tallaght plant.
"We are talking about replacing 1,200 jobs in Tallaght if Packard closes. We will be seeking an urgent meetings with the Government to hear how it proposes replacing those jobs."
Early yesterday senior executives from Delphi Packard in Pittsburgh met separately with the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton and the Minister of State to the Government, Mr Pat Rabbitte, who also represents Tallaght in the Dail.
Mr Byrne said he first learned of the closure through media contacts about 8 p.m. Most Packard employees only became aware of the situation when it was reported on RTE's news at 9 p.m. "The workforce deserve better than this and we intend to fight this closure", Mr Byrne said.
Twice in the past year Mr Rabbitte and the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Richard Bruton, have been personally involved in negotiating rescue packages for the Tallaght plant, but neither was available for comment last night.
It is unlikely that they will again involve themselves in what is now seen as a lame duck enterprise. Instead, Government efforts are likely to be directed at finding an alternative project for the site. A major problem is that most of the Packard workforce are low skilled and unlikely to find alternative employment easily.
One immediate concern of the workforce will be the redundancy terms on offer. The company is expected to honour the previous package of five weeks pay for every year of service.
News of the closure seems to have come as a shock to local management as well as the workforce. A spokesman for the company, when contacted last night, said that Delphi Packard was "deeply upset" at the way the news had broken. "It had intended that employees and unions would be informed before any announcement was made".
Last May plans to lay off 400 workers indefinitely was also leaked to the media before the workforce was informed, which added to the difficult industrial relations climate at the plant.