"If We Were In The East Of The Country, There Would Be No Doubt About Tuam."

The Connacht Tribune, Friday, June 17, 1983

WITH THE AXE hanging over the Irish Sugar Company plant in Tuam, reporter, David O'Connell and photographer, Stan Shields, met some of the workers there this week to talk about their feelings on the controversy.

These are troubled times for the workers at the Tuam Sugar Factory, and if the plant closure goes ahead as planned at the end of the year, many of the employees may never work again.

That is the grim reality of the situation as seen through the eyes of the Tuam workers when they spoke to the Connacht Tribune earlier this week. The factory has employed three generations of Tuam workers, and now those finishing at the end of the year range from young married workers with large house mortgages to long serving employees who will find it next to impossible to secure another job.

Mick Gilmore is a native of Brownsgrove, near Tuam, and at 31 finds himself with the likelihood of redundancy from the only job that he has ever had.

"I started in the sugar factory twelve and a half years ago, when I left school," says Mick, an accounts supervisor at the plant. "Now I am married with three children — one three year old and twin girls, a year old last Friday. I have a mortgage on my house, and a loan to pay back on my car. I really don't know what will happen if I lose my job."

"The chances of another job at the moment are not very high," he continues." I would be competing against those people walking around with university degrees, so what chance would I have? If I was lucky enough to get a job, even away from Tuam, I would still have to worry about my mortgage. I would have to sell my house, but with so many others from the factory faced with the same option, the housing market would be flooded, and I would probably be unable to sell even at a lower price."

What are his feelings on the imminent closure of the Tuam plant? "I feel that it is a bit drastic to close it down altogether, because this factory was never designed to be simply a sound economic proposition. It was put into Tuam for social reasons, and now it is being held up as the scapegoat for all the sections of the sugar company that lost money in the past year."

Mrs. Anne Leonard is a canteen and general worker at the plant. She is a widow with three children, all boys ranging from 18 to 13. She has been working full—time there for the past seven years. Now she too, looks grimly to the future.

"If the factory closes, there is nothing left for me," she says. "I would get unemployment benefit, of course, but I cannot see any chance of a job for myself in the future. I had hoped that some of my children would get jobs here, but now that's all gone."

"At this stage it is beginning to look very bleak, with no replacement factory coming in," she continues. "I don't think that the factory should close down now. It's more important that it remains open at any cost, because it has the town of Tuam depending on it.

"A lot of the girls here are struggling to pay mortgages. Youngsters have always turned to the factory for employment, but now the 250 school leavers in Tuam this year will have to look elsewhere as well."

"My father worked here all his life," says Anne. "I had uncles working here; we were all reared on the factory when times were hard. I never thought it would come to this, and I'm still hoping that they won't close it. You never know, a miracle might happen."

Hugh McDonagh is one of the longest serving employees at the sugar factory. He started there 26 years ago when he was 17, and he has never known any other work. Originally from the Tuam area, he now lives in Headford, and he travels from there to his job as a fitter each day. Hugh is the father of four children ranging in age from 18 to three years of age.

Kevin Kealy is also despondent looking at the future. "I would be very lucky to even get a job in Galway," says Kevin. Kevin is from the Upper Dublin Road in Tuam, and he is married with one daughter. He too has a mortgage taken on his house.

"I'm completely shattered now," he says. "At this stage, I am resigned to the fact that I will have to go on the dole. At 36, I have few chances of getting another job. When you have worked for ten years in your home town, it's hard to even think about moving out. I'm completely dependent on social welfare for a living."

Although they have not yet given up the fight to keep the factory open, many of the workers feel that outside of the present set—up, there is no way that the plant has a future.

"The idea of workers' co—op is not on at all," says Vincent Gaffney, Assistant Accountant and Secretary of the Worker's Action Committee. "We would need a vast amount of money for working capital, which we have not got, and could not get. Our only hope is to fight the threatened closure all the way."

Vincent is 21 years there, having started as a clerical officer, working his way up through the ranks. He has a wife and three children, aged from 14 to eight, dependent on his income. What will he do if the factory closes?

"There is absolutely nowhere for me to go," he says. "It is difficult even to think of what would happen if the factory closes. I would have to try and get another job, and if I was lucky enough to get one. I would then probably have to move away. I would have to sell my house, and buy another, and I would have to uproot my family, making my children start at a new school. These are all things that don't get a mention in all the publicity, but it is the reality of the situation as we the workers see it."

However, Mr. Gaffney was quick to stress that the battle is not over yet and that the workers are far from resigned to their fate. "If we were in the east of the country, then there would be no doubt about Tuam," he points out. "Look at the Clondalkin case as an example. But it's still the old Cromwell attitude of 'To Hell or to Connacht' for us. We have gone through this in 1981, and while workers' morale is obviously affected, we will go through it again. We have a mandate from the workers, and our action committee will fight this closure to the bitter end."