Fruit of the Loom workers have grown accustomed to an uncertain future. Yesterday the uncertainty faded, and was replaced by the stark reality of a Christmas on the dole and an imminent announcement of long-term job losses.
The company employs more than 2,000 people in four plants in Donegal and practically all of these will be laid off from Friday. The company is expected to announce later this week that a large number of permanent job losses are planned. Short-time working is due to end in early January, though it is unclear how many will then be returning to their jobs, as it is not yet known the precise extent of the planned permanent job losses, or when they will happen.
Fruit of the Loom is a classic case of a county having, if not all, then most of its eggs in one basket. It is by far the largest employer in a county where the rate of employment is more than twice the national average. For communities surrounding the towns of Buncrana, Malin, Milford and Raphoe, Friday will be the start of a bleak future. Many households depend entirely on income from the company.
Ms Geraldine McDermott works in the T-shirt division in the Buncrana factory. It is expected it will be the first to close as Fruit of the Loom can make the same T-shirts at one sixth of the cost at its plant in Morocco. Seven of her brothers and sisters also work for the company. "The atmosphere was terrible. It really hit people when we heard we were going to be laid off on Friday. We know now it's definitely going to happen. Everybody was in really bad form.
"We just can't believe we are getting off on the 11th - that means no money for Christmas. We thought we would at least have a good Christmas this year, that we would have one more good Christmas out of it, but now that's not even going to happen," she said.
In the past, workers have heard of threatened job losses on the radio as they travelled to work, and this was also the case yesterday. They resent the fact that even though it's their livelihoods that are at stake, they are always the last ones to know.
Over the past three months, workers and their trade union representatives have been asking for a clear statement of the company's intentions. It has become accepted that at least 700 jobs are likely to go, but nobody knew when or in what plants. In an indication of the extent of their frustration, some actually said yesterday that they were "relieved" that they would now know what was going to happen.
Circulars were given to staff at 3.30 p.m. yesterday telling them they would have to take extended Christmas leave from Friday because stocks had piled up. For the workers, this means not earning any wages in the two weeks running up to Christmas.
The company also gave assurances that all four plants would be back in full production by January 6th, but people were initially very slow to believe this. Their "gut feeling", as one woman described it, was that this was just the company's way of letting them go, and that once the factories close on Friday, they might never reopen.
A SIPTU shop steward at the Buncrana factory, Ms Bridie Burns, said that after the rumours of the past few days about extended leave, workers were now glad it was "out in the open". Ms Burns added: "Their fear is that this is a way around putting them out and not getting them back in again." The secretary of SIPTU in the North West, Mr George Hunter, said that he was "very, very concerned" at the temporary lay-offs. "Once again the company has failed to get it right in terms of planning its production."
He said he was now expecting the company to disclose its "corporate plan", which will include details of long-term lay-offs later this week. Mr Hunter said he believed Fruit of the Loom would honour its commitment to bring all the workers back after the Christmas break. If it failed to do so, it would have to pay money in lieu of notice, he added.