THE DAWN Meats abattoir in Midleton, Co Cork is to close next Friday with the loss of 80 jobs.
Employees were aware the abattoir was to cease operation but it was widely expected that workers would keep their jobs until the end of January.
The same facility let go 100 employees over the summer.
Siptu, which represents 44 of the workers, said it was very difficult for workers to be made redundant just before Christmas week. Some of the workers were already struggling to pay bills, having been put on two or three-day weeks.
Labour spokesman for agriculture and food Seán Sherlock TD said the news that Dawn Meats was to close its operation in Midleton was a damning indictment of the Government’s record in the agrifood sector.
The Cork East TD added that the job losses were the latest in a number of significant blows suffered in his constituency.
“What is worse for the workers at Dawn Meats who will lose their jobs, and the thousands more across the country who want to earn a living, is that the current Government has missed an opportunity to introduce measures that will generate employment. Furthermore, it is the latest in a long line of major losses in my constituency. Tytex in Youghal, the Dairygold and the Co-Op stores in Mitchelstown and Fermoy, and the beet factory in Mallow.” Dawn Meats purchased the plant in Midleton in the mid 1990s and, at its peak, hundreds of people worked there.
The Dawn Meats job losses will be another blow to east Cork. More than 500 jobs have already been axed at Pfizer and Swissco in Little Island in recent years.