Glen Dimplex jobs rally - Made with Clipchamp - video Dailymotion

National World

An emergency rally has been called in Portadown to voice concern at the potential closure of one of the town’s ‘anchor’ factories with workers fearing their jobs will be off-shored to Lithuania

Transcript

00:00Yeah, so we had the announcement at the start of February of the potential loss of up to

00:07300 jobs through the closure of the Portadown site.

00:09That's going to have a massive knock-on impact, not just 300 livelihoods of our members and

00:15their families in Glendonplex, but also local jobs across Portadown.

00:19This is one of the anchor employers in the community and we haven't seen anything from

00:23politicians, you know, other than it's awful sad, we'll support people who have lost their

00:28jobs.

00:29So there seems to be no desire, no ambition to actually save good union manufacturing

00:33jobs in Portadown.

00:35Why do you think that is?

00:37I think there's a lack of political will at the moment.

00:40Our members are determined to ensure that the political will is there to fight for these

00:44jobs.

00:45Glendonplex is an incredibly profitable company.

00:48It's our view that these jobs are simply being offshored through corporate greed.

00:52They're going out to Lithuania where the minimum wage is much lower, where these jobs aren't

00:57necessarily unionised.

00:59Our members have stood on picket lines and fought for decent cost of living pay increases,

01:03have fought for their terms and conditions and they're performing very important work.

01:08You know, Glendonplex is getting into renewables and has been developing renewable products

01:12for decades now and there's a huge market.

01:15So it's not a case of, oh well, you know, we're in a declining market here, but actually

01:19our members have decades, centuries of experience and skills that could be redeployed into green

01:24new jobs in the economy, but instead the company's determined to throw them on the scrap heap

01:28and determined to do that for cheap as well.

01:31You've asked local politicians and we are coming up to an election to support you.

01:37Have you had much response?

01:39We have had some response from the politicians.

01:41We hope to see them there.

01:42It's not just our members in Glendonplex that would expect them to turn out to this rally

01:45and give us answers to the questions of what are you doing to stop jobs leaking from the

01:50Portadown area?

01:51What are you doing to protect decent terms and conditions in the Portadown area?

01:55So we would expect them to come and be able to give us answers.

01:58Every political candidate in the general election is invited to come and address the

02:02crowds in Portadown this Friday and we would expect answers to those questions.

02:06We want to work with all political parties, all political representatives to ensure that

02:09there's a plan to keep jobs in the area, whether it's Glendonplex or other manufacturing sites

02:13where there's potential job cuts.

02:15Just personally, I feel very let down by senior management in Glendonplex.

02:21They blocked us really at every move.

02:25Any information that we've asked for, Mail has asked for in particular, for us to put

02:30in a counter-proposal, has not been given.

02:33Any information, the little information that they have given us is worthless.

02:37They know exactly what they're doing, just stalling.

02:43Certainly I feel very let down.

02:45And this has obviously left people like yourself and your colleagues in a limbo as to what

02:52your future is?

02:53The future, it just keeps changing.

02:57Originally we were to close early 25th, that's now, we were told a couple of weeks ago that

03:03that's going to be put back now to 31st December 25th before there will be even a redundancy.

03:12So yes, it's just people's mental health, their anxiety, they don't know, as you said,

03:19we're just left in limbo, we don't know whether to leave or stay, we're just completely left

03:24in the dark and no information coming from management at all about anything.

03:31Has it given you any opportunity even to work, to transfer to a different, to Newry or somewhere

03:37like that?

03:38Or is it just, that's it?

03:41There are plans to expand production on the Newry site, that is where the company seems

03:47to be wanting to focus its efforts into these green new jobs.

03:51So for us it's not about jobs in Newry versus jobs in Portadown, it's a question of why

03:56are you taking these jobs out of Portadown, where is the loyalty to your workforce in

03:59Portadown, where is the investment in Portadown with these decent union green manufacturing

04:04jobs because that's what we need more of.

04:06Once jobs go out of the local economy they rarely come back and that's our key issue

04:10here.

04:11We want to put forward a real alternative that provides decent jobs in the local community

04:16but also one that rewards the workforce for its loyalty.

04:19These guys have stuck through thick and thin, whether it's been the COVID pandemic, whether

04:23it's been the economic crisis, have worked in short time working and have taken everything

04:27on the chin to protect their jobs and to protect this site in the local community over the

04:32years and that's not being rescinded, that's not being reciprocated by the company.

04:37We're seeing very, very low offers that are being made in terms of voluntary redundancy

04:41at the moment, no clear answers as to when and how people are going to be put out of

04:45work and no ambition from the company to actually fight to save jobs in the local area.

04:50There's plenty that could be put on the table in terms of support from the state, support

04:54from the government, real investment from an incredibly profitable company.

04:58Let's not forget we're talking about the second richest man in Northern Ireland that owns

05:00this company so it's not like it's a company on the sticks or on the rocks here, this is

05:04simply being done for corporate greed.

Glen Dimplex jobs rally - Made with Clipchamp

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