Some of the 400 Lufthansa workers at Rathcoole, Co Dublin, due to lose their jobs in coming weeks, are appealing to Government to protect the viability of the aircraft overhaul plant.
A small number of the workers protested outside Leinster House this morning and handed a letter into the Department of Jobs, Enteprise and Innovation, appealing to Minister Richard Bruton to "step in and protect the viability of this plant as an engine overhaul facility".
“If we lose the capability to overhaul aircraft engines we lose the capability to create employment in this sector of the industry,” they said in the letter.
If the plant is allowed to fall into disrepair, they argue the high-skill industry will be lost to Ireland forever.
Lufthansa Technik confirmed last month it was closing its aircraft engine overhaul plant in south county Dublin with the loss of 411 jobs. Some 100 employees are being laid off tomorrow with the remainder losing their jobs on February 14th.
Among those there this morning was Sean O’Reilly, a quality inspector at the plant for 24 years.
“We accept that Lufthansa is gone,” he said. “But this is an industry that is booming worldwide .We argue there is no reason Ireland cannot be a player in this industry.
“The Government says on the one hand developing high-skill airline related jobs is an important priority for them and then on the other hand they are letting this industry die.”
Eamon White, a quality inspector at the plant for 29 years, said there were job opportunities for those losing their positions at the plant, but they were overseas. He said SR Technics had been recruiting in the plant in the past few days for positions in Switzerland, as had a subsidiary of Lufthansa, N3, for positions in Germany.
“So this is a viable, booming industry internationally which the Government is sitting by and letting die here. I am a bit long in the tooth now for moving to Switzerland or Germany for work. The roots are too deep.”
Lufthansa has blamed declining revenues and shrinking market opportunities for its decision to close the Rathcoole operation. There were hopes a new investor could save the business when US Group Cloud Investment expressed an interest in taking over the facility, but this came to nothing.
People Before Profit TD for the area, Richard Boyd Barrett, said the Government's failure to step in a protect the plant flew "in direct contravention" to its stated assertion that developing aircraft related industries was a priority.
“Lufthansa are not closing this plant because it is loss making – this a strategic closure to pull the work back to Germany and then eliminate possible competitors from a growing market,” he said.
“It’s very cynical and self-serving on Lufthansa’s part. The Irish Government cannot allow this to happen. Their responsibility is to Irish workers and the Irish economy and it is really unacceptable that the Minister is being so passive and docile when an industry with a proud record and great potential is about to go to the wall.”
