The strike at Guinness Ireland over the proposed closure of the company's Dundalk packaging plant, is to go ahead tomorrow morning. However, both management and the Joint Union Forum at the brewery are to meet at the Labour Relations Commission at noon for renewed conciliation talks. Negotiations on Tuesday ended without agreement.
The Labour Relations Commission was in contact this evening with both sides in the dispute. The Commission's Chief Executive Kieran Mulvey said that he was attempting to build on day-long talks which ended last night without agreement. However, it was still unclear this evening whether this initiative could be successful. Guinness spokesman Pat Barry said that the LRC contacted the company to say that they feel they have a formula on which talks might be resumed, and Guinness have agreed to attend this evening.
Talks at the Labour Relations Commission broke down last night. Five unions served strike notice, after the company announced that it intended to close its Dundalk packaging plant with the loss of 150 jobs. Talks collapsed at about 8.30pm yesterday after ten hours of negotiations, with both sides immediately trading accusations of intransigence.
Guinness management said that the talks stumbled on the refusal by the Joint Union Forum to accept that the closure of the Dundalk packaging plant is a necessary business decision. Unions said that they were seeking a way to keep negotiations underway, and that the company has not given an inch. While the Guinness Staff Union, which represents about 800 of the 1600 workers, has already agreed redundancy terms for its affected members, the other five unions have refused to enter any such talks.
Guinness has been winding down production over the past few days, and said that brewing will stop when the pickets are put in place at 6am tomorrow morning. The Vintners Federation of Ireland has called on both sides to resume negotiations, and has warned that some public houses could experience shortages as soon as the weekend. It is expected that supplies of Guinness, Budweiser, Harp, Carlsberg and Smithwicks will quickly run out.
