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
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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.