Senator Shane Cassels has blasted the actions of the management of Tara Mines in County Navan after the announcement that 650 staff would be let go for an unspecified amount of time.
Speaking on Tonight with Clare Daly, Cassels said the “unilateral way” in which the layoffs have been handled is “held with disgust” by the people of Navan where he says approximately 3,000 people ‘are dependent on the mine to make a living’.
“They acted without any consultation with union or government,” he said accusing the mine owners of being “more interested in the stock exchange than their employees,”
Tara Mine, the largest zinc mine in Europe, will cease production and exploration until such a time when the company will reportedly commence activity on a new area called ‘Tara Deep’ which Cassels said would be “very profitable for this company”.
The decision to make the layoffs came after Swedish parent company Boliden announced that the mine would shift into a ‘care and maintenance mode’ due to issues including declining zinc prices, operational challenges, high energy prices, and costs related to inflation.
The owners of the mine had previously warned that layoffs were inevitable if the government did not offer supports to alleviate rising energy costs
The Times reported in April that Boliden said it was “disappointed” that Ireland had not adopted EU rules which “allow large energy users access up to €50 million if they suffer a 40 per cent drop in earnings.”
This came as the company said that the Irish government had given “€100 million in assistance to chip manufacturers, after the European Commission approved a support package” saying that Boliden plays a ‘similarly important role’ as the Intel offices in Leixlip.
Calling for assurance to be made so that workers are still “in situ” when Tara Deep opens, Cassels said that this decision was “not unprecedented” and that a in similar circumstances 20 years ago the management of the mine had taken action and “did look after their workers on this occasion”
SIPTU Divisional Organiser Adrian Kane has said that the union would go to Sweden in hopes of meeting with management there.
Tara Mine first started operations in 1975 when permission was granted to mine the lead-zinc orebody.