‘Crime Control’ security deployed as pickets on at Kerry Foods

KERRY FOODS have introduced "strike-breakers" into its Shillelagh plant in County Wicklow where members of the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union mounted pickets yesterday, the union has claimed.

Pickets were mounted because the firm is attempting to introduce new conditions of employment without negotiation.

The Shillelagh plant manufactures Dennys bacon, sausages and ham.

In an escalation of the dispute on Thursday, the TEEU said, Kerry Foods brought in security guards with a ‘Crime Control’ logo on their uniforms.

TEEU Assistant General Secretary Arthur Hall has condemned the company for “adopting very heavy-handed tactics, importing scabs and dealing with our pickets in a very aggressive manner instead of negotiating with us to find a solution to the dispute”.

Arthur Hall said this morning that the company’s policy “will only lead to an escalation of the dispute, not only at the Shillelagh plant but see it extend to Kerry plants throughout the country”.

The dispute began on 18 April when the company decided to unilaterally change the terms and conditions of craft workers without any prior discussion, negotiation or agreement with the TEEU. The company finally agreed to attend talks last week for two days “but snatched defeat from the jaws of a peaceful resolution of the dispute”, Arthur Hall said today. “They seem intent on confrontation.”

He added:

“This self-destructive action by the company is putting the jobs of 700 people in jeopardy in an area of high unemployment.

“If the company reverts to our existing agreement, then industrial action can be suspended and meaningful negotiations can then take place at the Labour Relations Commission or directly between the parties.

“The onus is now on the company to start behaving in a responsible manner and avert a worsening of a situation of their own making.”