PBPA TD joins Lufthansa Technik Airmotive workers at Dail to call for Government action to save engine maintenance and overhaul industry from extinction
Government cannot stand idly by while 400 skilled jobs and vital skills goes to the wall
Richard Boyd Barrett TD, for the People Before Profit Alliance has urged the government not to “stand idly by” in the face of the imminent closure of Lufthansa Technik airmotive plant in Rathcoole and consequent loss of 411 highly skilled jobs.
Deputy Boyd Barrett, joined workers from Luthansa Technik at a demonstration outside Dail Eireann, where workers handed in a letter to Minister for Jobs, Enterprise & Employment – appealing for government intervention to maintain the jobs and associated skills base in jet aircraft engine overhaul and maintenance.
Deputy Boyd Barrett pointed particularly to a major contradiction between government inaction on the Lufthansa closure and recent highly trumpeted announcements in the government’s Manufacturing Strategy and Action Plan for Jobs documents, where commitments were made “to the retention and expansion of skilled manufacturing jobs” and a target of 20,000 new jobs in the sector by 2016 was set.
Deputy Boyd Barrett said: “The government cannot stand idly by while more than 400 highly skilled workers lose their jobs and with it our economy stands to lose a vitally important skills base and a strategic industry. If the government can find billions to bail-out insolvent casino banks – surely they can find money to save a profitable plant and these important jobs and skills in a growing industry.
The government have loudly asserted that developing aircraft related industries and employment is a strategic priority for them – given the substantial growth and potential in this sector globally. It would fly directly in the face of this policy priority to allow highly skilled jobs, a fully equipped plant and an entire industry, built up over 33 years, to go to the wall. It would be utterly senseless and stupid not to do everything possible to save these jobs, the associated skills and the plant.
Lufthansa are not closing this plant because it is loss making – this a strategic closure to pull the work back to Germany and then eliminate possible competitors from a growing market. It’s very cynical and self-serving on Lufthansa’s part. The Irish government cannot allow this to happen. Their responsibility is to Irish workers and the Irish economy and it is really unacceptable that the Minister is being so passive and docile when an industry with a proud record and great potential is about to go to the wall.
411 highly skilled workers face the loss of their jobs between now and St Valentine’s Day – the Valentine’s Day massacre, as the workers are calling it. Clearly, this is a dreadful prospect for the workers and their families but it also has big implications for our battered economy.
The workers are appealing to the Minister for Jobs and the government to urgently intervene in this situation before these jobs, skills and an entire industry are lost forever. We hope the government will listen.”