Finglas Company relocates to China

dublin | worker & community struggles and protests | news report

Thursday November 02, 2006 10:30

by John O'Neill - Irish Socialist Network

DUTCH COMPANY DUMPS FINGLAS WORKERS FOR SLAVE LABOUR

Dutch company, Omega Teknika, which makes pregnancy test kits and other healthcare products in the north Dublin suburb of Finglas, intends to cut its workforce to a minimum by moving to China for production.

Dutch company, Omega Teknika, which makes pregnancy test kits and other healthcare products in the north Dublin suburb of Finglas, intends to cut its workforce to a minimum by moving to China for production. Having been informed of the decision only recently staff have been left with an uncertain future following the move. “We don’t really know when this will be happening”, one shocked employee interviewed by the local newspaper, Northside People, revealed, adding: “It came as a complete blow to us as we thought the company was doing well!” . “We are in regular talks with the company and our perception is that jobs will be lost with the relocation” an official of AMICUS, the union that represents these workers, stated.

The company, which employs around 80 people in Finglas, is yet to finalise exact details but workers have been told that the product will be made in China and brought back to Ireland for packaging and labelling. Western companies move to China every year to take advantage of cheap labour. Despite claims that free market reforms improve living standards and working conditions of workers, reports in the international media have revealed the prevalence of unsafe working conditions, low pay and long hours, usually 14 hours a day, seven days a week, all enforced by threats and violence. Safety and working conditions are so bad that companies now employ agents on a permanent basis to recruit a steady stream of people from rural China to work in the factories located in the cities. Immigrant workers, often from poorer rural regions, have little choice but to accept whatever jobs are on offer. With no independent trade unions, and little or no protection from the state-controlled official union, Chinese workers are left defenceless in the face of unscrupulous employers and their corrupt allies, the Communist Party bureaucrats .

The irony is that Omega Teknika, like many other multi-nationals, has benefited from the Industrial Development Authority’s strategy of enticing foreign investment by offering generous government grants and subsidies, tax-free exports, and, until the year 2000, a maximum 10 percent corporation tax . Long-term, fixed interest rate financing was offered through the IDA's loan agency. Ready-built factories and tax-free depreciation allowances were also available. In addition, the IDA provided training grants of up to 100 percent of costs for workers in new industries.

In reply to a query from John O Neill of the Finglas branch of the Irish Socialist Network, the Industrial Development Authority confirmed that since 1965 Omega Teknika has received over 1.5 million euros in grants from the Irish taxpayer . In real terms this actually amounts to a lot more, since buying land or building in 1965 cost little or nothing compared to today’s prices. But the real question is - When will Irish taxpayers get their investment back? And the answer is NEVER! This company, like many others has milked the system here and is now about to dump the workforce and move on to make a bigger profit at the expense of their staff who will be unemployed and the unfortunate Chinese workers who will suffer unbearable conditions simply so that Omega Teknika can make a bigger profit than they already do.

SOURCES
“Workers face uncertain future” – Northside People

See: http://www.china-labour.org.hk/public/main and http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/oct2000/chin-o11.shtml

See: http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1984/06/ha....html

The IDA reply was as follows:
“Thank you for your email. Omega Teknika is an IDA supported company. IDA has provided grants to the level of circa EUR 1.5 million since the company's establishment in 1965. Shelah Brooks IDA Ireland Press and Public Relations IDA Wilton Park House”.