Unifi staff lose out to cheap imports

The gates of the Unifi textile plant in Letterkenny were chained shut almost two months ago, but Mr Brendan Gillon still wakes up at six o'clock every morning in time for his old shift.

The 51-year-old former machine operator at Unifi spent 27 years working at the US-owned textile giant making the polyester yarn that is used to make T-shirts, trousers and other clothing.

Unifi was more than just an employer for Mr Gillon, who was a keen member of the company's football team, and whose late brother also worked at the factory. It was a way of life.

"There was a great workforce at Unifi and many of my best pals over the past 27 years worked there," says Mr Gillon. "But I don't see them much anymore."

Over the past two years almost 700 people have been made redundant at Unifi, which bought its plant in Letterkenny from rival Courtaulds back in 1984.

Many employees, like Mr Gillon, lost jobs paying up to €28,000 per year and are now trying to get new jobs in Donegal, one of the few remaining employment blackspots in the Republic.

The unemployment rate in the country is three times the national average, fuelled by the the decimation of the textile industry.

"Conservative estimates put the number of jobs lost in Donegal at between 4,000 to 6,000 in the past six years," says Mr Seán Reilly, branch secretary of SIPTU's Donegal county office.

"There is no chance of people finding similar textile jobs in Donegal. There is only Clubman Shirts left, and they aren't hiring."

Mr Reilly and Mr Gillon have no doubts about the reason behind the demise of Unifi and a recent announcement by Fruit of the Loom that it will close its remaining plants in Buncrana and Derry. "It is no coincidence that the closures come as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is relaxing restrictions and a flood of cheap exports are coming to markets," says Mr Reilly.

"There are issues of slave labour and exploitation of workers in some countries."

Mr Gillon cities China as one of the worst offenders in relation to poor working conditions. But he acknowledges that Irish consumers have also played a role in undermining the Irish textile industry.

"We like to buy very cheap clothes, and these are manufactured in the Far East. Look at a retailer like Next, which used to source all its clothes in Britain. Now they all come from low-cost countries."

Unifi, which did not agree to an interview for this article, blamed the rising cost of doing business in Ireland and the increasing competitiveness of low-cost economies for its decision to close.

In a briefing with analysts last year, its US management laid out a strategy to set up a new factory in China. Some of the equipment at its Letterkenny plant is likely to be shipped to this factory shortly.

For Mr Edward Langan, who began working at Unifi's plant in 1978, the same month as Mr Gillon, the China factor is just a fact of life in the textile industry.

"It is just the way things are, it it's a trend. Myself and Brendan got 27 good years out of it," he says.

"Soon you won't be able to buy any clothes made in Ireland. But it would have been much worse if this had happened 20 years ago when there were no jobs in Ireland."

This month Mr Langan will go for a job interview with the medical device firm Boston Scientific, which has already taken on at least 20 former Unifi employees in Donegal.

"The rest has been good for a while after 31 years working - but I need something else now," says Mr Langan.