More jobs leave the NW - is this the only way?
Four years ago the papers in the North West were reporting on almost 500 job losses in various Desmonds factories and the transfer of jobs to areas overseas which could offer lower labour costs.
The changes didn't pass without a lot of pain and of course some controversy.
There was a sense of deja vu - in fact, how many times have we seen this now - when Seagate Limavady announced some 900 redundancies last weel.
I recalled UUP MLA Derek Hussey commenting in May 2003 that: "Within the announcement from Desmonds it is, to say the least, frustrating to read that 'it provides employment for another 5,384 In Its overseas joint venture factories and third party manufacturing units in Turkey, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh'. Jobs are being transferred from Northern Ireland to cheaper bases in third world countries."
Derek's comments find an echo in what's been said in relation to Seagate
One of the highlights of the recent Peadar O'Donnell Autumn School in Dungloe was the talk by Dr Kieran Allen of UCD about "The Corporate Takeover of Ireland" – also the title of his latest book. Kieran Allen lectures in the Department of Sociology in UCD. He also wrote "The Celtic Tiger: The Myth of Social Partnership" and last week's bad news from Limavady reminded me of Kieran's reality check on what has been happening south of the border.
He said: "The Celtic Tiger has produced the second highest level of poverty in the developed world and has fallen down on the Human Development Index complied by a United Nations agency. The real model for the Celtic Tiger is the deregulated gung-ho capitalism of the United States, where few taxes are demanded of the rich and workers are asked to put up with low wages and run-down public services.
"Despite claims that Ireland has resisted the worst effects of neo-liberalism, it is second only to the US in the proportion of its workforce on low pay. The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing US think tank, clearly recognised a kindred spirit when it ranked Ireland third in a global index of deregulated `free' economies.
"Instead of sharing the fruits of the boom, the partnership programmes have facilitated a transfer of wealth to the super-rich. Instead of a trickle-down effect, there has been a steady stream upwards. Instead of inclusion, there has been a growing class polarisation. And far from producing a kinder, more regulated form of capitalism, there has been Thatcherism by stealth, with privatisation being pushed through with the connivance of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions."
What really grabbed my attention was when he quoted New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who attributes the growth of the southern Irish economy to an Anglo–Saxon model of flexible labour markets: "The Germans and the French may want to take a few tips from the Celtic Tiger. One of the first reforms Ireland instituted was to make it easier to fire people, without having to pay years of severance. Sounds brutal, I know. But the easier it is to fire people, the more willing companies are to hire."
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Weather for Derry
Sunday 27 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 13 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: South east
