Workers left bitter and resentful after calling off action

SOME HUDDLED in groups discussing the day’s events, others quietly took down posters; the rest said their farewells to each other.

The Gallery showrooms attached to the Waterford Crystal plant at Kilbarry had been, more or less, a home to its occupants over seven weeks. Under other circumstances, such as saving all 480 jobs at the plant and solving the complicated pension issue, the end of the occupation would have been celebrated. This was not the case yesterday.

Crystal blowers Billy Kelly, Nicky Hayes and Willie Dwyer were devastated. “It’s very sad and it’s a bitter pill to swallow,” said Mr Kelly, who has worked at the plant for 30 years. “The Government didn’t come on board with this whatsoever, we were on our own. The gun was put to our head . . . We had no choice, the union’s back was against the wall.”

Hayes, who has 28 years’ service with the company, spoke of the plant as a tourist attraction.

“There was 300,000 people coming through here each year, they had to eat somewhere, they had to drink somewhere for the few days they were here,” he said. “The reason they came to Waterford was because of Waterford Crystal,” he added.

“We’re off the tourist trail and we’d often bring up and [let] them blow a glass and they were just absolutely amazed; they just couldn’t believe it. We got loads of letters from people around the world, and photographs.”

Dwyer, a blower of 38 years, said: “It’s gone now and I can see no way of it ever coming back.”

The sunny weather seemed to mock what was the hardest of days for so many. Unaware of the problems at Kilbarry, tourists continued to arrive.

An hour earlier, at the Tower Hotel in Waterford city, workers, ashen-faced yet simmering, left a long and “angry” meeting of Unite union members.

The possible withdrawal of a €10 million ex gratia pot for workers over certain “issues” was the “gun” the workers spoke of.

Waterford Congress of Trade Unions president Tom Hogan said it was “a long and difficult meeting” and “people agonised over the proposals”.

Liam Meagher, a furnace operative at Kilbarry for over 20 years, said: “The new crowd (investment group PrestigeCo) will produce high end stuff; KPS will sell it on, and the new buzzword is that it has the fingerprint of Waterford.

“Literally, that’s all it has.”