The credit crunch hits Carrick

MBNA, now Bank of America, was once ranked Europe’s best employer, but this week its Irish staff are in fear of losing their jobs as the company confirmed it plans to exit the credit-card business in the UK and Ireland

UNPACKING THE TERROR is an exhibition currently at the Dock Arts centre in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim. It’s uncomfortably apt in a week when the local bishop asked for prayers for workers at the town’s biggest employer, and the GAA county board issued a statement calling for political action and pointing out that some of the cream of its players, both at county and club level, are among the hundreds “very happily employed” at Bank of America.

Most people in counties Leitrim, Sligo, Roscommon, Cavan, Longford and Donegal who have family and friends among the 750 or so staff at Bank of America in Carrick still refer to the company as MBNA, in the same way as drivers of a certain vintage still translate kilometres into miles to see how close they really are to the end of the journey.

Nobody seems to know how close to the end of the line this is for a company that set up in Carrick a decade ago. It was a decade in which the town’s population soared and in which there was unprecedented development in the area. It has its share of unwanted apartments and houses, sure, but it also has new parks, a marina, boardwalks over the river, a footbridge linking two counties and a selection of new restaurants and pubs that put Carrick, a two-hour drive from Dublin, on the map as a weekend destination of choice.

Inside the Dock, a former courthouse that reopened as an arts centre in 2005 – the same year the Aura swimming pool and leisure centre opened next door to MBNA – nobody was talking about the dark shadow that settled over the town last Monday afternoon. A steady trickle of tourists, oblivious to the recent bombshell, were admiring the work of local jewellers and artists in Leitrim Design House, while staff in the coffee shop were discussing an upcoming multimedia event to be hosted in the 100-seat theatre. “It’s almost as if people can’t talk about it: we don’t want to admit that it might happen,” one woman said.

Last Monday, Bank of America confirmed it was exiting the credit-card business in the UK and Ireland and was preparing to either sell or wind down both operations. The news was imparted in an e-mail to staff. Two or three had already been tipped off by relatives in the US that news about the company was breaking. “I was off, and I got a text from a friend who was at work. That’s how I found out,” one woman said. “I know another girl who is on sick leave and nobody has rung her all week.”

THE BRIDGE IN CARRICK separates counties Roscommon and Leitrim; politicians in both counties were wringing their hands this week. While local business people stressed the profitability of the Carrick operation and the attraction of a skilled workforce to potential buyers, the mayor of Roscommon, Eugene Murphy, sounded downbeat. “I am very worried by the use of the words ‘wind down’ [by the company], because to me that suggests that they have already tried to sell and have not been successful. I really hope I am wrong about that,” he said.

Marian Harkin, an MEP for the northwest, urged the government to put in place a “plan B” for staff that would allow them, if necessary, to access the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, a mechanism that has been made available to former Dell workers to fund retraining and help get them back to work.

Comparisons with Dell and Intel were being made in Carrick this week by those struggling to portray the colossal ripple effects of such a huge number of lay-offs in the county with the smallest population of any in Ireland.

Joe Dolan, the owner of the Bush Hotel, is optimistic that a buyer will be found. The alternative, he said, would have huge ramifications in a town with a population of about 4,000.

Because of the uncertainty, most staff were afraid to speak to the media this week, and reporters and photographers who came too close to the Bank of America property were quickly moved on by security personnel. Staff who spoke anonymously didn’t know whether the company believes it has a future in Carrick.

“People used to say they will give it 10 years, and the 10 years is up,” said one woman. “We have not been told much . . . and the feeling on the floor is if they haven’t sold in six months, they’ll just shut the doors.”

Employees are also conscious of the knock-on effects of its closure for every business in the town, and in the many towns in surrounding counties, that benefit from Bank of America wages. “I reckon half of Carrick will be wiped out if it goes,” said one employee. If you look across the N4 from the sweeping Bank of America building, you see the 24-hour Tesco, also open since 2005, as well as Woodies, Boots, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Esquire restaurant.

“They must all be as nervous as we are,” said a Bank of America employee, who has been with the company for 10 years and who thinks the majority of her colleagues are “recently married, about to get married or married with young children and very big mortgages”.

Bank of America, the biggest rate-payer in the county, contributes an estimated €400,000 in rates to the local authority each year, “more than the total coming out of some towns”, according to one source.

Despite the gloom, people were focusing on the bright side this week. “People will always want credit cards,” said Gerry Faughnan, president of Carrick-on-Shannon Chamber of Commerce. The local Fine Gael TD, Frank Feighan, was upbeat about the fact that Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation Richard Bruton is going to the US to meet the chief executive of Bank of America. And one employee in Carrick who is planning her wedding for next year found something to be grateful about: “Thank God my husband-to-be does not work in MBNA.”

The age profile of the workforce is predominantly mid-20s to mid-40s, according to a member of staff, with many couples working there. “A lot of love stories began there, so I suppose it did some good,” joked one employee, who has been nearly a decade at the company. “I reckon at least 100 couples must have met in MBNA over the 10 years and married or set up home together,” she said.

While total closure, with the loss of 750 jobs, is too horrifying to contemplate, there have been redundancies in the past few years. Last year 66 staff in Carrick were laid off, and on September 2nd close to 40 more will clear out their desks. “One department was taken over by another company some time ago, and the staff were effectively given a choice: Dublin or the dole,” said an employee. Fourteen of these staff decided to either uproot their families or commute to Dublin during the week; the remainder will be out of work in two weeks’ time.

MBNA has had a good reputation in Carrick. The company is believed to have donated more than €500,000 to local schools and worthy causes. It is the main sponsor of Carrick Water Musical Festival and has supported the rejuvenation of the People’s Park in the town. But staff say things changed dramatically after Bank of America took over, in 2006. A small number said the downturn in the economy, and not the change in regime, was the reason for the loss of bonuses and perks and the increased pressure to perform. Others said the new company brought with it a culture that made working conditions less pleasant. In 2004, MBNA was voted the best place to work in Europe, but staff say that ship sailed soon after the company was taken over.

“I just loved my job when it was MBNA,” said one employee. “You were expected to work hard, but you were well rewarded, and I felt I learned a lot. Now I feel that if you give 120 per cent, it is still not enough.”

Another woman said the nature of the work has made it stressful since the economic downturn. “We are ringing people asking them to pay up, and sometimes they literally cry because they don’t have the money,” she said. “It’s hard to put pressure on someone on the other end of the line when they tell you they have just lost their job and have small children to feed.”

As the bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, Colm O’Reilly, this week urged people to pray for MBNA staff, many of them must be wondering whether they, too, are facing a similar prospect.