218 jobs cut at Fruit of the Loom

The clothing sector in Co Donegal has suffered another bad week as a further 218 people will today lose their jobs at Fruit of the Loom in Buncrana as part of the company's continuing scaling down of its operations in Ireland. These redundancies come just days after one of the best-known Donegal clothing companies, Magee, also announced job losses, mainly at its factory in Ballymena, Co Antrim.

The job losses at Fruit of the Loom bring to about 1,050 the total number of jobs shed at the company since December 1998, when some 770 redundancies were announced.

Four Fruit of the Loom factories have since closed, at Dungloe, Malin, Milford and Raphoe.

This latest round of lay-offs was announced last October when the company said that it did not envisage any further job losses during 2000. In the end, most of those being let go today - 212 out of 218 - opted to take voluntary redundancy.

Many workers see no long-term future at Fruit of the Loom, particularly since its parent company in the US has filed for protection against bankruptcy. The company still employs more than 1,100 people in Buncrana and some 500 in Derry.

In a deal agreed with the IDA and the Government in 1998, the company guaranteed 600 jobs in fabric production at Buncrana until 2006. Some 700 sewing jobs were guaranteed, however, only until the end of 1999. Most of today's lay-offs are in sewing and related areas, and the remaining jobs in sewing are now seen as vulnerable, given that factories in Morocco, where most of the sewing operations were moved to, are now fully operational.

Meanwhile, Donegal town-based Magee said that "long-overdue rationalisation" was the reason for a total of 63 lay-offs announced this week. This is about 10 per cent of the total staff. Just 14 jobs will be lost at the company's Donegal factory and 49 in Ballymena, Co Antrim.

Mr Lynn Temple of Magee said every job loss was regretted but the rationalisation was necessary to safeguard the company's market position.