There were only a few people around last evening at the Mallow sugar processing plant to witness the final chapter of the history of the sugar industry in Ireland, when the plant shut its doors for the last time.
The 80-year history of the sugar industry reached its conclusion as the clouds over Nadd mountain scattered light rain on the few workers and a number of protesting farmers who had gathered to witness the end of sugar production in Ireland.
Worker-director Liam Lucey, who spent all his working life in the plant, explained to the media that there was no sense in waiting for disconsolate workers to depart after the last shift at three o'clock.
"The workers here want their dignity and it's a very emotional time for them. They left early and they will not be back. It's been a terrible time for all of us down here," he said.
These were the last sugar workers left in Ireland before Greencore, which controlled the industry here, decided it was too expensive to produce sugar here and opted for an EU closure plan worth €145 million in compensation.
Pat Guilfoyle, regional secretary of the TEEU, said that the remaining 190 or so workers from his union and SIPTU were still in dispute with the company over the redundancy terms.
"As it is, our people are being forced out of this plant, taking only statutory redundancy. We are in dispute with the company over this and we are asking the Minster for Agriculture and Food, Mary Coughlan, to intervene here," he said. "We want the Labour Court to look at this issue again because the workers here are not getting the same treatment the workers got in Carlow and our people will be reporting for work next week until this issue is resolved," he said. Mr Lucey said that because of the way Greencore was interpreting the redundancy package, workers with long service stood to lose as much as €40,000 each in the payout.
In a joint statement Minister for Agriculture and Minister for Enterprise and Employment Micheál Martin said it was extraordinary that Greencore seemed to be stalling on the implementation of the Labour Court recommendation.
However, a company statement denied there was any difference or delay in the redundancy offer.
It said that following Wednesday's Labour Court clarification of its earlier recommendation on redundancy terms, management was now in a position to pay the same redundancy terms as to its Carlow employees made redundant last year. "The package, widely recognised as one of the best on offer nationally, is the equivalent of six weeks' pay for every year's service in addition to the two weeks statutory payment," said the statement, which said most of the workers had already collected their statutory redundancy cheques.
It also dealt with the issue of a "shutdown payment" based on the service of workers which would deliver a once-off payment of €7,000 for employees with over 30 years in the plant.
"That won't be much good to people like myself who may never get another job," said Darby Sheehan, who said only 10 per cent of the 324 people losing their jobs would get new employment.
Local sugarbeet growers, led by Gerry Murphy, said they had come to the plant to oppose it closing down before an assessment was made on its future as a bio-fuels centre.