A trade union representative has warned that workers will occupy the Tara Mines until issues with regard to care and maintenance are resolved.
Management at Boliden Tara Mines said on Wednesday that they will press ahead with their plan to place the operation in “care and maintenance” in mid-July with the temporary loss of up to 800 jobs.
Adrian Kane, Siptu divisional organiser at Tara Mines, told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that the unions had engaged “at face value” in discussions with the management, but he questioned the integrity with which they handled negotiations and called for political intervention.
Discussions are set to resume today to determine how many staff will be retained during the closure to safely maintain the facility and the establishment of a mechanism to trigger its reopening after the Swedish-owned firm said the cost saving measures proposed by the three unions were not enough to prompt a reversal of its original announcement.
Mr Kane pointed out that when the mines previously closed some years ago 140 staff were retained, this time the proposed figure was 40, despite the fact that the mine was now twice as large.
Operational efficiencies had been highlighted in early meetings between trade unions and management, but “a very different narrative” looking at a combination of factors had emerged on Wednesday said Mr Kane who questioned the integrity of management and the manner in which they handled the announcement which was via email to staff and a press release while the meeting was ongoing.
“Unless we have some sort of political intervention, it's difficult to see how the decision would be reversed. But we haven't given up hope on that and we would hope to. And we had a previous meeting with Minister Simon Coveney and we would hope to engage with him towards the end of the week again.”
There were issues to be determined about how the lay-offs will be managed, the terms and conditions of the lay-offs and what sort of matrix can be developed as to when the mines will open again, he added.
“We're not going anywhere until we resolve this to the satisfaction of all of our members. We will occupy the mine if it’s not resolved and we will continue to do so until the issues that are outstanding between us are resolved. “But we will continue to engage with the company to see if we can resolve the outstanding issues.”
Mr Kane said there were two issues that remained to be resolved – how the decision the company had made could be reversed and how a subvention towards energy costs could help as they were now two and a half times what they were before the energy crisis.
It was “beyond doubt” that energy was one of the biggest issues facing the company. There was money available through the Just Transition fund and the trade unions wanted “clear sight” of what the Government was “prepared to put on the table.”
Apart from subventions there was also the social protection issue, he said, as the Irish system was “completely out of line with what was the norm in Europe.”
