Unions at the ISPAT steel-making plant in Cork Harbour will meet today to discuss a joint strategy on management's demand for up to £2.5 million in savings in the coming year.
The plant, the only one in the Republic, has been forced to undergo several rationalisation programmes, but the latest being sought is regarded by the 330 ISPAT workers as particularly ominous. It would involve an increase in production from 320,000 tonnes to 425,000 tonnes of steel a year, wage cuts of 10 per cent, the loss of up to 15 permanent employees as well as an unspecified number of temporary jobs which could bring total layoffs to 60, and a reduction in paid overtime as well as subsidised meal allowances.
Management held talks with the workers on Thursday, Friday and Saturday last to get a compromise on the rationalisation plan which the company insists is vital to the plant's future. ISPAT chief executive Mr Jerry Gormon warned in an interview with The Irish Times last month that the plant was not paying its way and that unless it did, it would have no future in Cork. The production targets being demanded, he said, had been met for nine months last year and there was no reason they could not be achieved again.
Privately, however, many of the workers believe the demands are a prelude to a pullout by ISPAT. The company has already sold off more than 40 acres of land in nearby Ringaskiddy to Indaver, the Belgian company seeking to build a toxic waste incinerator there, and to the Port of Cork. Allied to this, workers say, equipment at the plant is old. Most of it needs to be urgently replaced if new production targets are to be reached.
"There is an air of gloom and uncertainty around the plant. Increasingly, workers are becoming resigned to the fact that it may not have a future. The company says there has been substantial investment since it took over here in 1996 from Irish Steel but it is difficult to see where it has gone. When a company begins to sell off valuable land holdings the signs must be ominous.
"On many occasions during the Irish Steel era, we made sacrifices in an attempt to secure a future for the plant. On each occasion, we gave in and now there are less than 400 workers when once the workforce was more than 1,000. There is very little confidence left," said one worker.
Asked at the weekend if there was hope for the plant, Mr John Hewitt, human resources manager, said management and the unions were "discussing the issues and talking things through". "There is always hope while we are talking. We have to find ways of making the plant more productive. This is a difficult industry, everyone knows how cyclical it is. These talks are all down to keeping the plant afloat."
Although the unions feel management has fallen short of committing itself to a long-term future in Cork, Mr Hewitt said the chief executive had expressed the hope that the company would continue to operate at Haulbowline even after his term in charge had ended.
"But we have to tackle the productivity issue and get costs under control. We expect to hold further talks with the unions during the week."