Industrial action has been threatened at Guinness plants around the State if the company does not suspend its decision to shed 300 jobs in Dundalk.
After a meeting with senior management in Dundalk broke down yesterday, members of the Joint Union Forum (JUF) in Guinness said there would be industrial action. "It will be on a nationwide basis across all plants in Guinness," said ATGWU secretary Mr Brendan Hodgers.
"We needed the company to level the playing pitch if it is to engage us in consultations on the future of Guinness. For that we needed the threat of axing 300 jobs taken away. They were unable to do this so we could not continue the meeting," said Mr John King, SIPTU branch secretary.
In the coming days he will brief other representatives on the JUF and "it will then make an announcement of its strategy".
"We have advised the company that they are placing our members on a war footing," he added.
It is understood there is widespread support among employees in the other Guinness plants who are also awaiting reviews of their own operations. Last Friday, Guinness announced its review of its Dundalk operations and said that its packaging plant should close by the end of September with the loss of 190 jobs. The company wants to implement a "radical transformation" in its brewing plant and cut the numbers employed by two-thirds to 50. A Guinness spokesman said yesterday reviews of its operations in Kilkenny, Waterford and Dublin are continuing and there would be no announcements on them this year.
This followed speculation that the company would close the Waterford plant where 40 people are employed in brewing lager and that they would cut staff numbers in Kilkenny and Dublin.
"The company has been left in no uncertain terms that the support is already there in Kilkenny and Waterford for the Dundalk workers," Mr John King added.
The managing director of the Guinness Supply organisation, Mr Allen Peeters and the head of employee relations, Mr Kevin Walsh would not comment as they left the meeting in Dundalk yesterday. The JUF meets again next Wednesday and will announce its strategy to fight the outcome of the review of Guinness in Dundalk. It is expected that will include industrial action and union members warned, "we won't be waiting around".
