"YEAH, the meeting went well, very well, but we want mores than a meeting," the young woman with the toddler said leaving the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght.
In spite of yesterday's bright sunshine, the mood of the Packard workers was subdued as they left the arena after a mass meeting. As SIPTU branch secretary Brendan Byrne described it the mood was "sober and determined".
The young woman, who asked not to be named, had reason to be both. "My husband and myself are both going to lose our jobs. We've no other income and five weeks the redundancy pay terms on offer for each year of service is no good to us. This is compulsory retirement. People don't want to leave. Some will never work again and we want better than this."
The workers' representatives will today meet management to seek better terms and discuss alternative uses for the Tallaght plant. Tomorrow sees another meeting of the task force set up to seek employment projects.
Almost the entire workforce turned up for yesterday's meeting. As expected, they voted overwhelmingly to demand that they be given first choice of any new jobs created at the 122,000 square foot plant.
As Mr Liam Bernie, convenor of the shop stewards pointed out, there is a precedent. When General Motors closed down Reg Armstrong Ltd and McCairn's Motors in the 1970s, the redundant workforce were given first refusal on jobs at its new subsidiary, Packard Electric.
"General Motors is the biggest company in the world," said Mr Bernie. "They make everything from nappies to articulated lorries. They have said no to a car components industry in the Tallaght plant but surely there is something they can put into the facility?
He also spoke of the phenomenal success of another GM subsidiary in Ireland, Opel. In a clear reference to its sponsorship of the FAI and the Irish Olympic team, Mr Bernie said. "General Motors and Packard are one and the same organisation. They claim to be Ireland's best friend. Now is the time to prove it."
Unlike last June, when union officials had to sell a hard deal to the workforce, there was no anger directed at the bearers of bad tidings. The company, and to a much lesser extent the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Richard Bruton, and his colleague, Mr Pat Rabbitte, are now the villains of the piece.
However, there was little time spent on recrimination. As Mr Mick O'Reilly, of the ATGWU, said "The important thing is to keep the workforce together as a cohesive pressure group. There's a danger otherwise that they'll drift away, become invisible and part of the long term unemployed."
There seemed little danger of them fading away yesterday.