Asahi closure will take heavy toll on community

Despite a six-month advance warning, the closure of the Asahi synthetic fibre plant in Killala, north Mayo, which began this week and is expected to be completed within a fortnight with the loss of all 315 jobs, has taken a heavy toll on the community.

So many of those who joined the company when Asahi first set up at the £1 million IDA plant in 1973 are men and women in their late 30s and 40s. Now they find themselves without regular income to support their mortgages and families.

For more than 20 years Asahi, which occupies just 40 acres of the massive 400-acre IDA site in Killala, has been the flagship industry in north Mayo, providing not only employment for more than 300 people, but also promising survival for hundreds of smaller dependent enterprises.

Now, however, even the ESB is to lose out, with the nearby Bellacorick power station set to lose its main customer. CIE, meanwhile, which transported the vital raw materials for the Asahi production process along the Ballina rail line, is also due to suffer a much reduced demand for its services.

Customers such as Marks & Spencer, which receives 80 per cent of its total thread requirements from Asahi, will additionally have to look elsewhere.

All of this, in tandem with the high unemployment already persisting in the nearest large town of Ballina, signals an imminent crisis for the north Mayo region unless immediate State intervention occurs.

While a task force set up by the Tanaiste, Ms Mary Harney, four months ago is reported to be making every effort to attract new investment to the site, departing workers are only interested in one thing.

They are waiting for the day the news comes through that a new investor has been found for the site, an announcement many are expecting imminently.

"It's all right talking about high hopes, but it's still going to be hard to get something new, and it's hassle," said Tony Doherty, (43), a father of four and production manager with the Asahi fibre plant, who is losing his job after 22 years.

"I feel bad about it. You get into a routine with work like this, and when it ends your social dimension goes, too. I live 20 miles on the Dublin side of the plant, and the people I work with every day I might never meet again," he said.

Another worker, Eugene Farrell, doesn't rate his chances of finding another job in the area, but believes the opportunity exists for another textile firm to move into the site which could perhaps concentrate on producing improved wool and cotton fibre mixtures.

"I've worked in Asahi for 20 years as a quality control manager. There are six in family, and at my age the chances of getting a job in another industry aren't high.

"All I know is textile spinning. I'm stuck in a groove and watching this place grinding to a halt with stocks running out is not nice," he said.

However bad things become, Eugene has no intention of abandoning Killala to look for work elsewhere. "I like it here too much - the fishing and the lovely way of life. It really is a lovely place with great people," he said.

A quality control and maintenance worker, John Duffy (36) is losing his job after 20 years. "This was my first job. I joined Asahi at 16, and textiles is what I know about most. I'll be at a loose end after this and will find it very hard to settle, especially having always worked as much overtime as possible."

With youth on his side and two children to support, however, John isn't giving up. "I won't retire, no. I'll just have to keep my options open. You have to be an optimist, but it is difficult with Christmas coming up. You're usually looking forward to coming back again after the break, but we can't plan ahead at all now. "It will be a financial burden and a psychological one, too, because of the loss of routine," he said.

According to the SIPTU chairman of the shop stewards' committee in Asahi, Tommy Ginley, the successful negotiation of fair redundancy packages for workers has eased the sense of loss.

`People have obviously accepted it because the wind-down is going on for so long. Of course, it was a major shock at first because people thought Asahi would always be there, but spinning mills have closed down all over Europe because they can't compete with the cheap imports coming in from places like Taiwan and China.

"But in terms of finding new investors, we have many things in our favour. We have an adaptable workforce of skilled craftspeople, electricians, fitters, operators of precision machinery and modern technology; the factory turns over 1.5 million gallons of water every day, has top-class telecommunications and electronics, sewage, car parks, and has a boiler-house to produce millions of gallons of steam; and we have a great site at a time when the climate for jobs is good."

With this frame of mind, many former Asahi workers are now looking forward to Christmas as usual with the expectation that the new year will bring good news.

Mary Harney has already said she will visit Ballina in the next two weeks, and hopes she will make a major announcement, possibly involving a US firm, are running high.