Warning over second 'black Friday' as 45 jobs go at Owens

Johnny Owens, whose concrete company is one of the largest in Westmeath, has confirmed that he was forced to reduce his staff from 60 to 15 last Friday echoing lay-offs in the building trade during last year's holiday fortnight.It is another enormous blow to the company founded in 1982 and which employed 130 staff at the height of the building boom. Mr Owens had already been forced to downsize his staff last year after the building trade went belly-up and demands for materials waned.Yesterday (Monday) Mr Owens warned that other contractors were in the "same boat" and would be laying off staff before the traditional holiday fortnight."The same thing happened last year and lads were told just not to come back after the holidays," he said. "It was really hard on Friday having to tell lads that have been with me for 17 and 18 years that I had to let them go. These lads have been with me since the start from the ground up."There is nothing happening. The work has stopped dead with a full stop. We are on the ground, we've been at the coal face of the trade for decades and we are proof that there is nothing happening."There was some work finishing off farm sheds and sites but now there are literally just small bits and pieces here and there."We have commitments to fulfil and by taking the step to lay off staff we are making those commitments easier to manage. There is nothing that can be done for the trade until money starts to flow again. There is no building work going on and therefore there isn't a need to supply concrete, tarmac or quarry fill which is of course what we do."Some suppliers have taken the decision to sell below cost but we won't do that.We can't afford to do that. Letting the men go was hard but we had to do it."I would say that we will hang in there and keep on fighting. I said on George Lee's programme that I didn't care if I had to start again with €40 and I mean that."