Safeguard our jobs

At the Irish policy conference of Unite, held in Croke Park yesterday (May 12), Ireland deputy regional secretary Jackie Pollock called for action to safeguard jobs in the manufacturing sector.

 
“In the last year, the manufacturing sector in Northern Ireland has suffered a number of large-scale jobs losses,” she said, noting that the region lost 850 jobs in JTI in Ballymena, more than 550 in Bombardier-Shorts, 140 in FG Wilson and 100 in Howden.

 
“And these are just the headline losses,” Pollock added.

 
She argued that manufacturing was under attack in North Ireland, caused by relentless outsourcing to low-cost economic competitors.

 
“Protections against redundancy in the UK and Ireland are among the weakest in Europe,” Pollock noted. “This is resulting in Northern Ireland being viewed as the easy option for job losses by multinationals, by comparison to other EU countries where they employ workers. It is essential that the Northern Ireland Executive addresses this problem and intervenes to protect workers from the race-to-the-bottom on workers’ pay.”

 
Pollock called for a robust manufacturing strategy, one that “looks where we are at and where we need to go.”

 
She made the case for an interventionist strategy that identifies areas needing investments, as well as obstacles impeding growth along with remedies and responses.

 
Pollock argued that the manufacturing strategy must “facilitate growth in powerful industries like pharmaceuticals, precision-engineering and aeronautics.”

 
“Only with a strong industrial base, rooted in a strong infrastructure, can we build a better future, Pollock concluded. “We need to build on solid foundations; a robust productive base provides that.

 
“There are no short-cuts but we need to take the first steps now before we lose even more of these vital jobs. We must ensure that real steps are taken to safeguard the future of manufacturing in our society.”