Thermo King announced this afternoon the loss of 260 jobs at its Dublin plant bringing the number of redundancies announced in the state over the past two days to over 500.
Earlier today, Henniges Elastomers in Ballina, Co Mayo, announced the closure of its plant causing 170 redundancies directly with a further 50 job losses among sub-contractors.
Yesterday, 40 jobs were cut at the Dawn Meats processing plant in County Mayo arising out of the plant’s involvement in the BSE cull which is due to start there next Monday.
In a statement issued this afternoon, Thermo King Corporation said the closure was part of a corporate-wide plan to rationalise its manufacturing operations to improve efficiency.
A company spokesman told ireland.comit was unclear if some of the Dublin employees could find positions in the company's Galway plant where 600 people are employed.
The wind-down will begin immediately with the plant expected to fully close in April of this year. It is understood that manufacturing currently taking place at the Dublin facility will now be handled through a combination of outsourcing and consolidation in the Galway plant.
Management at Henniges in Ballina blamed said its closure came as a surprise and was caused by what it described as spiralling wage inflation.
The company produces injection-moulded components for the European car industry. The company’s US parent firm, Gencorp, intends transferring most of the operation to Germany.
Mayo SIPTU branch secretary Mr Séan Nolan said the job losses would devastate the local economy.
He called on the IDA and other State agencies to use the intervening period to lobby for a replacement industry.
He said today's loss of employment was compounded by the revelation yesterday that many jobs are likely to be lost at Dawn Meats in Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo.
