Black week on jobs front for Galway

Date Published: 13-Nov-2008

IT has been a black week for employment in Galway – more than 250 workers have been told their contracts have been terminated, a further 55 voluntary redundancies have been sought, emigration is on the rise and figures now show that more than 14,000 people are now out of work in the city and county.

And there was speculation last night on the security of a number of posts at the Thermo-King plant in Mervue. The company, which manufactures a range of transport control systems for trucks, trailers, buses and rail carriages is said to be having difficulty securing orders from a number of its larger customers and there are fears they may have to lay off a up to 100 workers before Christmas.

There have been indications in recent months that the Mervue plant was experiencing difficulties – last April up to 100 contract workerswere to be let go, and the company decided to lay off a further 70 contract employees last month.

In the past week, 135 metal manufacturing jobs at APW in Oranmore were lost when the company announced it had gone into receivership. The company ceased operations last Friday, but those who have lost jobs will not receive redundancy payments until after Christmas.

In addition to this, 90 ….