Workers at the Snickers workwear factory in Tullamore have learned that the company intends to halve production and make at least 50 of the plant's 96 employees redundant.
Mr Seamus Buggle, secretary of SIPTU's Offaly branch, described the redundancies as a further devastating blow to the midlands after the recent announcements of the closure of the Lowe Alpine clothing facility in Tullamore and the Dawn Dairies plant at nearby Moate.
The Snickers decision, Mr Buggle said, would bring further despair to a region which, in spite of significant economic growth in the country as a whole, had suffered major job losses in the last few years at Atlantic Mills in Tullamore and Longford; at Avon in Portarlington; at Leoni in Birr; at Daiber in Tullamore; and at Tarkett in Mullingar.
In the light of this industrial devastation, Mr Buggle said, the Government and development agencies should make the midlands region their number one priority in terms of future job-creation initiatives.
The union is to enter immediate negotiations with management on severance terms for those to be made redundant and on the arrangements for the scaled-down production facility. Mr Buggle added that the union was to contact the relevant agencies with a view to providing the redundant workers with skills audits, training and information on alternative employment opportunities.
According to the management of the Swedish-owned plant, the key factors in its decision to cut production were intensive price competition and the copying of garments by manufacturers in countries with low labour costs and low overheads.
Established in Tullamore in 1981, Snickers also has plants in Latvia and Vietnam.
Mr Buggle said that in many multinational operations, the Irish plants must not only compete with other manufacturers but also with other plants within their own company. Sadly, the loyalty and commitment of the Irish workforce seemed to count for little in the corporate headquarters abroad when there were low-cost alternatives elsewhere.