SIPTU officials have accepted that there will be significant job losses at Fruit of the Loom in Co Donegal. However, after a meeting with the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, they said they believed that for the foreseeable future the company would maintain a significant presence in Donegal.
An announcement on the company's future is expected this afternoon. Ms Harney informed SIPTU that negotiations had concluded between the executive of the IDA and Fruit of the Loom, and the agreement reached would be put to the board of the IDA this afternoon. The company will give its response in a public statement after the IDA meeting.
This follows a day of growing frustration and anger at the company plants in Donegal yesterday as union representatives demanded an urgent meeting with the company. SIPTU officials were told that the management was "not in a position" to meet them.
A request for a meeting will be made again this morning. Discussions did take place by telephone throughout the day between SIPTU officials and company representatives. These centred on measures to alleviate hardship for workers arising from the company's plan to lay off almost all staff from Friday until January 6th.
Employees are paid one week in arrears, and because of the lay-off would have to work for two weeks before being paid on their return. The company is believed to have agreed to pay workers an advance on January 7th, which will be deducted from subsequent weeks' wages.
It is now thought likely that union representatives will meet management only when an announcement is made on the scale of job cuts. This is expected to take place this afternoon.
SIPTU shop stewards had demanded the meeting to hear the company's long-term plans, but also to discuss the issue of the short notice given to workers of Friday's lay-offs. "All we want to know from this company, to whom some have given a lifetime of loyalty, is their plans for our future," a statement said.
Ms Anne Whoriskey, a shop steward at the Milford plant where some 165 people are employed, said anger and resentment were growing. Workers fear this plant could close down completely because they work exclusively on T-shirt production. Some 800 jobs are threatened, probably in the T-shirt division.
"You just have to stand there with your hands behind your back and take every slap in the face that is given to you. It is bad enough that we are going to lose our jobs, but I really resent the way we have been treated over the past few weeks," she said.
Ms Whoriskey said that if the company had granted the union a meeting, they would feel that they had some influence. "As shop stewards and as trade unionists, we have been made fools of. We are not even getting a meeting and there is a feeling of impotence.
"I don't believe we are going to be allowed to have any influence. Workers have been loyal and they just cannot believe they are being treated like this."
She said she could understand why workers were getting angrier at the lack of direct information from the company, and some of her colleagues were already talking of emigrating.
SIPTU's regional secretary, Mr George Hunter, and a shop steward in Buncrana, Ms Bridie Burns, last night met the Tanaiste to discuss the expected job losses. Mr Hunter and Ms Burns are both members of the special task force set up by Ms Harney to try to find alternative employment for Donegal.
After the meeting with the Tanaiste, Mr Hunter said there would be significant job losses but that for the foreseeable future Fruit of the Loom would maintain a significant presence in Donegal. He said the meeting had been a good one. He was informed that the executive of the IDA and Fruit of the Loom had finished negotiations.
The agreement reached would be put to the board of the IDA this afternoon, and the company would give its response in the form of a public announcement at about 4 p.m. today.