A DECISION on whether the Wellman synthetic fibre plant at Mullagh, Co Meath, should continue operations will be considered next week. This follows what management called the breakdown of talks yesterday aimed at ending a 10 week old strike at the plant. But a union official insisted the talks had only been adjourned.
A company spokesman, stressing the talks had broken down said no date had been arranged for further negotiations. "We have no plans for a further meeting and we don't see any prospect of negotiations recommencing. He said there had been broad levels of agreement on the causes of the dispute but they felt the union's pay demands were excessive and unreasonable".
Asked how this affected the future of the company, the spokesman said the board of directors was considering its options and it would be assisted by one of the US parent company directors, who would visit the plant next week.
While the company is adamant that negotiations are over and that there is too big a gap between the sides, Mr Edmund Browne, SIPTU president, maintained that talks were only "adjourned". He said his talks with the managing director of Wellmans were adjourned "for a period of reflection, acknowledging the great deal of progress which had been achieved and "with a conscious desire to retain the option to build on these achievements and to complete the work begun".
Deep concern is felt locally at the prospects of losing such a valuable, major employer. The headmaster of St Colmcille's primary school in Kells, Mr Brendan McCabe, said that next Tuesday school students would take part in a march calling for settlement of the strike.
"This is a call to management and unions to get their heads together. They should be cognisant of the childrens' future and pull back from the brink," he said. The plant employs 500 people.