TOWN DAIRY TO CLOSE HAVING STARTED IN 1960 AT SQUARE
33 OF 35 WORKERS WILL BE AFFECTED BY DECISION WITH JUST ONE TAKING UP RE-LOCATION OFFER MAY 1998
PRODUCTION ceases at Dealgan Milk Products (DMP) dairy and the Coe’s Road plant is to close at the end of October, nearly four decades after opening at the Market Square.
At most, two of the 35 workforce will remain and possibly none after October.
The facility will operate in the meantime as a depot as part of a rationalisation plan introduced after the November merger of the Avonmore and Waterford groups.
Following a redundancy package agreed with unions, 27 employees they represent will depart on a phased basis. Sixteen are leaving shortly and the other 11 by the end of October.
Milk will be delivered to Coe’s Road from Drogheda and the remaining workers will sort it for collection.
Eventually, however, supplies for agents will be delivered already prepared.
Unions manage to secure an improvement on the voluntary redundancy package agreed with management.
This will entail the payment of a nett sum of €3,000 to each employee for co-operating with the early closure of the dairy, first set up 1960 at the Market Square by Dundalk businessmen.
The redundancy package also includes a €6,000 lump sum along with 5 weeks’ wages for every year of service. There is also provision for payment in lieu of notice.
While the workforce is relatively young, quite a few have longer careers, making the package attractive.
Nevertheless, some speak with anger at the closure of DMP.
‘We are absolutely devastated. It’s an absolute disgrace,’ says one man who asserts it’s a take-over by Avonmore and not a merger with Waterford.
He adds, and two colleagues agree, there is no axe to grind with local management.
‘We never had a problem (with management). They did everything to facilitate us. We are just gutted at losing our jobs.
‘All I know is DMP. I left school and came to work here.’
One of the trio is in his 14th year with the firm, and another has nine years behind him; and while they recognise there are other jobs about, they don’t relish the lower pay of some factories.
One man points out he faces the prospect of working in a factory for £150 a week, a cut of some £70 on his dairy wages.
‘I have a mortgage to pay and a child due in August,’ he adds.
A pledge to help find alternative work doesn’t measure up as far as they are concerned.
A management source says it is open to all 27 to transfer to the Avonmore plant in Drogheda.
Only one full-time employee takes up the offer, as do a couple of younger part-timers.
However, for others it isn’t feasible to work in Drogheda, primarily due to starts of 6am and earlier.
‘It is sad to see a place so long in town close, having started off as a local concern,’ a union spokesman remarks.