It was a sombre atmosphere in the Guinness packaging plant in Dundalk yesterday. The 147 staff knew they were probably doing their last day's work at Dundalk Packaging, in operation since 1707 when brewing began in the town.
"I believe this is the beginning of the end of Guinness in Ireland," Mr Pearse O'Hanrahan, Dundalk Urban District Council chairman, said. He is "100 per cent behind the workers".
Along with union officials, Mr O'Hanrahan fears the closure of the Dundalk plant is part of a strategy which will see other plants in the Republic scaled down or closed. Pickets were scheduled to be placed on all Guinness sites in the Republic this morning.
The five unions representing brewing, production, maintenance and transport staff support the industrial action and effectively all of Guinness's operations have come to a standstill.
"Our industrial action has to be effective to ensure we minimise the length of time we have to take it for; if this brings the company to the negotiating table, it is worth it," said Mr John King of the Joint Union Forum, who was involved in the LRC negotiations. It is believed the talks broke down in three areas including the long-term strategy by Guinness for its operations in the Republic.
About 1,000 staff are supporting the industrial action and the Guinness Staff Union has agreed to negotiate redundancies.
"People are feeling down today, they were hanging on to a lifeline that something could have been reached at the Labour Relations Commission," said SIPTU shop steward Mr Jimmy Neary.