DÚN LAOGHAIRE:AS THE likely loss of all 210 jobs sank in, a Pfizer employee in Dún Laoghaire said: "Once they bought Wyeth's, our fate was sealed."
There was mixed reaction at the news that Pfizer plan to close the site at Pottery Road if a buyer cannot be found.
Andrew Perry (52), a biochemical technician with Pfizer was briefed alongside his fellow staff in the main canteen at 1.30pm. “We were told about all sorts of restructuring, downsizing – all these euphemistic words they have. So the whole site will effectively be gone if they don’t find a buyer by the end of first quarter 2012,” he said.
“We were shocked because the major investment was only there, €250 million was invested a couple of years ago, so we thought our futures were secure. We were told they were secure in respect of that investment but obviously once they bought Wyeth’s, our fate was sealed then because there was such a large capacity at Wyeth’s,” he added.
“Ive a mortgage, everybody has . . . I’m the single earner in the family so obviously when I’m gone there’s no income so I’m at the age now where I’m going to find it hard to get a job.”
Mick Duane has worked on the site at Dún Laoghaire for the past 33 years. “We took it fairly badly because we weren’t expecting the whole place. We were expecting a bit of a shutdown here and there and maybe a reduction in places,” he said.
“All we can hope is that someone takes it over,” he added.
“It’s very disappointing,” said 29-year-old Daria Dmitruk from Poland. “It’s a brand new site, new building.” Ms Dmitruk, who lives near the plant, said the closure would have a major impact on the area. “There are loads of people working around here who have families.”
Others said they had anticipated the move by the company.
“Sure it’s been in the pipeline for weeks and weeks,” Mark Wynne said. “But there’s no one died, there’s worse things.”
“It’s not all black and white, it’s not gone gone. Until it’s gone we’re going to be here for another couple of years. I think the biggest part of relief is that people know now. It was the not knowing.”
Paul O’Brien said that there was anticipation among workers that there would be a reduction in the workforce. “A lot of people were shocked but a lot of people felt it was coming as well. There was people very upset, I mean there’s people working there up to 30/40 years so I mean people are going to be upset when they hear their jobs are going out the door.”