THE four men stood in shirtsleeves, their arms folded and their backs to the window. Occasionally they glanced at the cameras behind them. In front of them about 300 people listened to the reasons they were about to lose their jobs.
This lineup of senior managers including Carlos Ferreira, managing director of Packard Ireland Jim Dolan, personnel manager, and Jose Couto, European human resources director met workers yesterday afternoon. For half an hour they explained why the human resources in the staff canteen were no longer viable.
Earlier, workers had gathered with radios to listen to the news that their 21 year old plant faces closure in three months.
The components were being made more cheaply elsewhere, the workers were told. The company had figures to prove that the figures in Tallaght no longer stacked up.
Angela Sterio heard the news on Monday night from her 14 year old son. He heard it on RTE. "He told me that my job was gone." Her son was just a year old when she started working in Packard.
"I keep hearing them talking on the radio about people in here being semi skilled, over the hill and have no prospects. I have four children, a mortgage and a dog.
Her husband is unemployed. Like her fellow workers she was angry not only with the news of the collapse but with the way the workers were told. "We have given them everything that they wanted, worked extra hours, given up holidays. And for what? To be told on the nine o'clock news that our jobs were gone."
Mick O'Reilly, ATGWU regional organiser, said management had offered a redundancy deal of five weeks' pay per year of service.
But the unions would be fighting for jobs. "We still think there is a case to be made for keeping this place open ... The plant has a future. What's lacking is the will."
He said management told the unions they had analysed the plant's performance against other European sites and this was the reason for the closure.
"We asked them to give us the analysis on which they based the decision. So far they are unwilling to do it. And you have to wonder why."
Louise Treacy, a shop steward and one of the workers temporarily laid off last June, spent Monday night in a sit in at the company canteen. Shortly after 2 a.m. yesterday they got the first written confirmation that the plant was to close. It was a faxed statement sent to them from a Dublin radio station.
"Every journalist in the country had that fax before we did," she said,
Between them, Gerry and Susan O'Keeffe worked for Packard for 36 years. Their family income has been wiped out by the closure. They have a mortgage and an eight year old son.
Les and Esther Ward are in a similar situation, having clocked up 35 years between them. They take home £290 a week.
"We have very little prospects. Most employers are looking for young school leavers and even they have trouble getting work."
When the doors of the plant close they will register with FAS.
"We all will," said a group of workers. Among them, Mary Royal said her son and daughter both worked at the plant. "There are an awful lot of husbands and wives, fathers and sons in here."
She said the feeling among workers was that their jobs would not last until July, the closure date set by the company.
