JTI’s response to factory jobs plan “contemptuous”

Japan Tobacco International has rejected a trade union plan to save 500 jobs at the Gallaher cigarette factory site in Northern Ireland, according to a story by Henry McDonald for The Guardian.

Unite, the union representing most workers at the plant, confirmed on Wednesday that the owners planned to end production there by 2017.

Overall 800 jobs are due to go at the factory even though the unions had proposed new working conditions and up to 300 voluntary redundancies.

Jimmy Kelly, Unite’s regional secretary, described JTI’s attitude to the rescue plan as “contemptuous”.

And Jim Nicholson, the Ulster Unionist MEP, said he was dismayed by JTI’s rejection of the union proposal.

“This is a huge blow to the factory workers, for the Ballymena area, for the Northern Ireland economy as a whole and for all those who have worked so hard to try and secure a future for the plant, he said.”

The story is at: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jan/21/gallaher-cigarette-factory-union-northern-ireland.