Anna-Marie Flynn
THE Ballina Coca-Cola plant has been accused of being incapable of handling the extra workload generated by the closure of its sister plant in Drogheda, amid claims that the relocation is only going ahead because staff are not unionised in Mayo.
In a strongly-worded statement issued by the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU), the union’s Regional Secretary, Arthur Hall, has taken aim at the decision to transfer part of the concentrate operations to Mayo as the staff are not members of a union.
“The workforce in Ballina are not represented by a union and have significantly poorer pay and conditions, because it [the plant] could meet current demands,” he said.
The secretary said the move was ‘nonsensical’. “The whole exercise makes no sense whatsoever except in terms of a strategy of deliberate de-unionisation of the workforce. Coca-Cola has repeatedly told us that the Drogheda plant is one of the most efficient and profitable and it is only closing because of over-capacity. They are just moving the operation to Ballina where there is no union.”
Mr Hall said the north Mayo plant, which is now ten years in existence, is not equipped for the extra work. “It turns out Ballina is not capable of handling demand for concentrate so they should keep the Drogheda plant open,” he said.
Making the comments on foot of the announcement of a new plant at Wexford Business Park, the TEEU also blamed the IDA for ‘supporting the de-unionisation of workers’, calling it ‘a slap in the face’ for the trade union movement. “I think this is the first time the IDA has actively helped a company get rid of its unionised workforce and replace them with workers denied basic representational rights,” added Mr Hall.
When contacted by The Mayo News, the Coca-Cola plant in Ballina referred the query to head office, although a staff member did stress that working conditions are ‘as good, if not better’ at the Killala Road premises, and that all staff have the option of joining a union if they wish.
On behalf of the company, Legal and External Affairs Director, Miriam Doyle, said the matter was clear-cut.
Addressing the union issue, she said: “The Coca-Cola Company operates union and non-union plants throughout the world including in Ireland.” She denied that Ballina is not equipped to deal with the pressure coming from the relocation of the Louth plant. “The Drogheda plant closed because the high capacity plant in Ballina along with the specialised plant in Athy are sufficient to meet the current and future supply of Concentrate from Ireland,” she said.
Ms Doyle concluded by stating the plant in Ballina is ‘significantly different’ to that proposed for Wexford.
Coca-Cola announced the relocation of 70 jobs to Ballina in September 2007 as part of a restructuring of the company’s operations in Ireland resulting in the loss of 250 jobs at the bottling plant in Drogheda.
