Workers 'gutted' as plant set to shut down in eight weeks

Gutted was how one worker described the feelings of staff at Irish Glass Bottle who learned yesterday that the Ringsend plant would close, despite the acceptance last month of a restructuring agreement between unions and management.

"They're gutted about it - that's the main feeling," said Mr Larry Hickey, a SIPTU shop steward at the plant.

The past few months have been an emotional rollercoaster for the 375 workers who learned in February that the plant would close. But a survival plan involving radical change in work practices was agreed in March.

The latest announcement was a blow, said Mr Hickey. "This is the second time this has happened in the past three months," he said. "We did everything that was expected of us. They wanted new work practices. They got that. They got everything."

He said workers were angry. "It's anger at the board of directors of Ardagh. It's not directed at management. They had no control over it."

SIPTU branch secretary Mr Gerry Lynch described Ardagh's decision as a betrayal of the hopes of the workers who had accepted major changes to rescue the firm.

"Our members are now asking if the whole exercise was a cynical gesture by management," said Mr Lynch. Workers were told the plant would close within eight weeks. "It's disappointing and disheartening. You're up in the LRC, you come back to your members and get them to accept a deal and then the board pulls the rug literally from under your feet," said SIPTU shop steward Mr Harry Philips. Job prospects for many employees were slim, he said. "There are a lot of people in the company like myself - I spent 30 years in this job and I'm the other side of 50 - so finding something else mightn't be so easy for me," he said.

Mr George Whelan, an employee, said the closure was not unexpected. "But the feeling in there is pretty bad. There's a lot of young lads with mortgages, trying to rear families."

Labour Party leader Mr Ruairí Quinn said the treatment of workers by Ardagh management was abysmal and the industrial development authorities should be instructed to seek new owners to keep the plant operating as a going concern.