IRALCO "will be back in business" in January

Management at IRALCO (CF Automotive) have moved quickly to rubbish rumours that the Collinstown plant, which manufactures decorative trims for the automobile industry, will not reopen for business after Christmas.Tom Hyland, Managing Director, told the Westmeath Examiner this week that IRALCO will reopen its doors to its workforce on Monday, January 12, and will resume production as normal.He said that because the firm"s customers were winding down for Christmas, demand has dropped, and so IRALCO has been left with no choice but to mirror its clients in the automotive industry.'If you take a look at the automotive news headlines, you will know that all car manufacturers are closing for Christmas,' Mr. Hyland said. 'This is a market-driven, demand issue, and nothing to do with IRALCO itself.On Friday last, workers at IRALCO were told that the factory would shut down between December 12 and January 12 due to the general downturn in car sales nationwide. As well as taking two weeks" annual leave over Christmas, workers have now been told that they will have to take two extra weeks unpaid leave.The IRALCO chief said that if there were any fears among workers in light of this development, it had been caused by 'sensationalism' in the national media.'It"s a bit annoying the way it was reported in the media last week,' he remarked. 'No matter where you looked, it was said that IRALCO was "shutting down for a month", but this is not really the case.'We are responding to the market situation and closing for two weeks, in addition to the fortnight of annual leave which workers were always going to take for Christmas.'I would imagine that anyone who"s in the manufacturing game at the moment has the same issue,' Mr. Hyland concluded.The workforce at IRALCO has been streamlined from 420 workers to around 320 since a redundancy programmed kicked in a number of months ago.