Workers lose out as meat firms shut down for the day
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THOUSANDS of workers in the meat industry lost a day's work and pay yesterday because the public sector strike meant privately-owned slaughterhouses could not operate.
At Rosderra Irish Meats, 700 workers went without pay as the plant was unable to operate because the strike meant no government inspectors were available to perform legally required health and food safety inspections.
IBEC's meat industry division said the strike brought the meat industry to a standstill and resulted in important export sales being lost, as well as the losses suffered by workers. And companies exporting lamb to the continent for the Muslim Eid festival this weekend were among the worst affected, said IBEC director Cormac Healy.
"Today's action has seriously hit businesses in the meat processing sector and their 10,000 employees. The entire industry has been brought to a standstill," said Mr Healy.
"A normal day's work would have involved the processing of 10,000 sheep, 10,000 pigs and 7,000 cattle. That was not possible because of the strike by agricultural officers at meat processing plants."
Pig plants were also badly affected because slaughtering is intensive at this time of year in the run-up to Christmas.
At Rosderra Meats in Edenderry, Co Offaly, and Roscrea, Co Tipperary, workers were put on protective notice in advance of the strike and lost work and pay when slaughtering could not go ahead.
A spokeswoman for Rosderra said that 700 of their 800 staff had been affected.
The company would have to wait and see what happened if another strike takes place next week, she said.
Mr Healy said the Irish meat industry, which has exports worth €2.2bn a year, could ill afford further losses.
Severe
"The strike has forced unacceptable losses on an industry that is already under severe pressure due to the dramatic fall in the value of sterling and the impact of the recession on consumer spending," he said.
The Irish meat industry is centred around selling fresh meat and will suffer damage to its reputation if it cannot meet the extremely tight delivery deadlines, he added.
"If buyers cannot get what they want from us, they will go elsewhere," he said.
- Aideen Sheehan
Irish Independent
