This article is from page 10 of the 2011-06-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
FORMER employees of Shannonside Oil have said they will continue their protest until management at the company agree to enter into talks with them.
Four men – Jimmy Jones, Paddy Kelly, Pat Quinlivan and Colm Quinlivan – staged a protest at the Shannonside Oil depot on the Clare Road, Ennis, last Wednesday and Thursday. The men are claiming they were unfairly dismissed from their positions as driver/ salesmen in April.
Limerick man Jimmy Jones, who worked with the company for 20 years, said the workers were not given any reason for their dismissal. He said the group decided to protest after seeing their jobs advertised in The Clare Champion and Limerick Leader newspapers.
He added, “The same jobs. The company has refused to enter into any talks with us. They just told us to go home. We can’t get in contact with them since. We wrote letters to them. They won’t respond to them. We’re here to make the public aware of what has been done to us.”
Clare man Pat Quinlivan, a driver/ salesman for six years, said that the men had sought a meeting through their union SIPTU. He added, “We’d have worked six days a week if they wanted us to, worked late at night. All during the winter there with the bad roads, ice, slipping off the roads. We always did what we could for the company. And then this just happened like that.”
He continued, “We’re hoping to let the public know what happened to us and get their backing hopefully as well. We would look to be re-instated back with the company.”
Colm Quinlivan, driver/salesman for three years, said, “It’s only two years ago that I got a letter off the company to get a mortgage stating that the job was long term for the foreseeable future. I got that mortgage and now I won’t be able to pay the mortgage because I’ve no job.”
He added, “We’ll protest for as long as it takes to get some sort of meeting or some sort of negotiations.”
Tulla man Paddy Kelly, was a driver/sales man for eight years. He said he is worried about the future.
“I’m a married man with children. They’re at home wondering why I’m at home. It was over 20 years back in the last recession when (I last didn’t have a job). It didn’t matter that time because I was a young fella. Within six months of the last time I got a job and that was it. But now there’s nothing out there.”
In a statement on Wednesday, Corrib Oil, who took over Shannonside Oil in 2008, said they had been in talks with SIPTU and workers for the past 18 months, saying redundancies were necessary because of adverse market conditions. Management at Corrib Oil did not respond to requests on Wednesday and Thursday from The Clare People for a comment.