Up to 200 jobs are to be lost at Baxter in Castlebar after staff at the plant were called to a meeting on Wednesday where they were informed that 150 redundancies would be sought from the 1,100 permanent employees while 50 temporary positions are also to be cut at the plant.
A spokesperson for Baxter told the Mayo Advertiser that, “it is unfortunate that we have had to announce these cuts, but there are a number of drivers behind the decision such as the global economic downturn and our need to improve cost competitiveness.” However he went on to say that Baxter was fully behind the plant in Castlebar and there would be a major investment made next year.
“There will be a €6 million investment made in the Castlebar plant next year, some of that investment will be put towards automation and coupled with the economic downturn this will lead to these redundancies.”
He added that management was confident the redundancies would be filled ‘voluntarily’ by staff over the coming period, however some of the temporary positions may end sooner.
“Baxter has been in Castlebar for 38 years and we hope to be here for another 38 at least”, he said.
Commenting on the news, SIPTU official and independent councillor, Michael Kilcoyne stated there had been some uncertainty following the laying off of a sizeable number of temporary workers over the last 12 months but it marked a very serious issue for the town of Castlebar and the county of Mayo as a whole.
“It cancels out the jobs in Hollister which won’t actually be created until 2012 - except for maybe those in construction - and really shows the depths our economy has sunk to”, said Cllr Kilcoyne.
“It is particularly serious for the people who are losing their jobs with no prospects of getting any replacement jobs, because there are no propspects whatever. The only thing I can say is that the company has recovered before from major blows and so we would hop e it will again - but we have never gone through a recession like we are going through now.”
In real terms Cllr Kilcoyne predicted the immediate effect will simply be the dole queues in Mayo getting longer and more and more uncertainty.
“I wish I could give some hope but the facts are that the loss of 200 jobs in Castlebar would be like the loss of a couple of thousand jobs in Dublin - that’s the scale of this - and in tems of the manufacturing industry in the town - it represents a loss from this sector of at least 25 per cent in one go.”
Mayor of Castlebar,
Councillor Ger Deere
described the news as a
‘massive body blow to the
town’. He told the Mayo
Advertiser: “Baxter has
been a flagship industry in
Castlebar for a long time
now, it’s very unfortunate
that this news has
emerged, hopefully this
will be the last time we
hear news like this in
Castlebar.”
Commenting on the
dearth of good news jobs
stories for Mayo in recent
years, Cllr Kilcoyne added
wryly that part of the
problem was that if
Enterprise Ireland were
actually to create a job in
Castlebar they wouldn’t
know the way to get there.
“Baxter was always a
good employer and I
would now call on
Enterprise Irleand who
can’t seem to find where
Castlebar is, if they just
contact us and we’ll show
them where it is.”
Mayor Deere added that
the news could have
devastating effects for a
number of families around
the town. “There are
numerous husbands and
wives working in Baxter,
this news could really be a
devastating blow for
families in the town
taking two wages out of a
house. When you couple
that with the money it will
take out of the local
economy, it’s bad news for
everyone in Castlebar.”
He also said that the
news highlighted the need
for improvements to the
infrastructure around the
county to ensure that
industries like Baxter stay
in Mayo. “I know that the
Mayo Industries Group
are to meet with the
Government next week
about the infrastructure
in the county like the N5
and the need to improve it,
this is somthing that has
to be kept on the agenda
and we need to see
progress on.”
