Govt to meet with bose exec over devastating job losses

 

The minister for state with the department over jobs has told a local TD that the government will explore all opportunities possible to get another business into the closing Bose plant in Carrickmacross, which last week announced 140 job losses.
Fianna Fail’s Brendan Smith raised the issue in the Dail yesterday (Thursday, January 28) asking questions of Gerald Nash, the Minister of State at the Department of Jobs and Innovation.
“This time last week, the 140 workers at the Bose plant in Carrickmacross, County Monaghan, got the devastating news that the manufacturing plant would cease operations in April of this year. Sadly, the method of communication with the workers was desperate,” Deputy Smith told the house.
“Some of the workers, whom I spoke to over the weekend and on Monday night, had worked in that plant since 1978-79, while others had 20 to 30 years’ service, and all of them spoke in glowing terms of the great employer Bose has been. The method of communicating the devastating news to them was through a video link of four minutes and 40 seconds outlining the plans for the new year for Bose Corporation... That message of four minutes and 40 seconds was, unfortunately, seen by many of those people as the end of their working careers.

'Devastation'
“I repeat to the Minister of State, Deputy Nash - and I hope he will convey this both in his own work and to Deputy Bruton - that we want the strongest possible interaction from a Government point of view directly with the senior management of Bose. I understand that a senior executive of Bose Corporation is in Ireland today and tomorrow. On behalf of the workforce and the community in Carrickmacross, I ask that the Minister, Deputy Bruton, and the Minister of State, Deputy Nash, or whoever else, meet directly with that senior management official and give the strong message that we are anxious for the company to consider reversing its decision.
He said that the “manner in which the news was broken to long-serving staff was a poor reflection on the company” and the delivery of the “devastating” news was “uncaring, cold and unacceptable”.

‘Highest-level contact’
Deputy Nash said: “An inter-agency group, led by Enterprise Ireland, has now been established to address the job losses at Bose. Its membership includes representatives of all the relevant State players - that is, IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, the Department of Social Protection, SOLAS, the Cavan and Monaghan Education and Training Board, the local enterprise office, LEO, and 
Monaghan County Council. 
“The Minister [Richard Bruton] is also arranging a meeting with a senior Bose executive who is travelling to Ireland from the USA to discuss the situation.
“I myself have been in contact with the IDA and Enterprise Ireland at the highest levels and have asked them to redouble their efforts to secure new projects for County Monaghan and the broader region, to explore all opportunities to replace the jobs being lost in Carrickmacross and, thereby, to find a replacement industry for the site.
“It is worth remembering that the IDA has been particularly successful in attracting major employers to the north east region in recent years and will seek to build on that success in highlighting the clear advantages of Monaghan, with which I am only too familiar.
“I reassure Deputy Smith that I and my Department are working closely with the IDA and Enterprise Ireland to get certain projects across the line in the Cavan and Monaghan area which will deliver investment and jobs. Everything that can be done will be done in this case. Deputy Smith has my personal assurance of that,” he said.