Dundalk plant, LRC talks have broken down
Talks at the Labour Relations Commission aimed at averting the strike at Guinness have broken down. A spokesperson for the five unions involved said that their members would now go ahead with the strike as planned from 6am on Thursday. Unions served strike notice after the company announced that it was to close a packaging plant in Dundalk, with the loss of 150 jobs. The proposed stoppage would affect all Guinness plants throughout the Republic, and supplies of the drink would be rapidly affected.
After ten hours of talks, the distance between the two sides proved unbridgeable, and negotiations collapsed. A spokesperson for the five unions involved in the dispute said that the fatal blow came when the company rejected a final position submitted by the unions, and he accused the management at Guinness of intransigence. Strike notice was served when the company announced the closure of the Dundalk packaging plant on the grounds that it was not longer commercially viable.
Tonight, the company said that the unions failed to accept the necessity of the closure of the plant. Over 1,100 workers are represented by the five unions involved in the dispute, and deliveries will cease as soon as pickets are put in place on Thursday. It is expected that supplies of not only Guinness, but also Budweiser, Harp, Carlsberg and Smithwick's will also quickly run out.
