Boycott of Dell products urged
THE chairman of the Dell Workers Representative Group has urged a boycott of Dell products.
At the end of this month, around 250 front-line staff are to lose their jobs in Dell, but over the last month Dell has taken on at least 200 temporary staff on short-term contracts to meet special orders in the run up to Christmas.
Some of the workers being laid off have asked management if they could come back to fill these roles, but were told they would have to go through the Manpower temping agency.
Following a heated meeting in Limerick on Tuesday night, workers' group chairman Denis Ryan said many members of staff asked management if they could fill these positions.
Mr Ryan added: "Dell are saying there is a redundancy situation, yet they are re-employing people. People who are working on the lines are being moved on, and told goodbye, but are being replaced. It does not make sense. Surely, if you make people redundant, you are telling them the job has gone?"
A spokesperson for Dell said: "A small number of temporary workers were taken on, but will finish at the end of the quarter (the end of this month]. The temporary workers taken on will have no impact on the end dates of our permanent staff. We did extend the finish dates for a number of employees."
Asked if he felt former workers would be willing to re-apply through an agency, Mr Ryan said: "Why should they be employed by an agency when they are already working there. Why get sacked on a Friday, and then re-apply through an agency on Monday, with no guarantee of work? It is illogical and lacks common sense."
He stated that he would "never purchase a Dell product again. That would be my way of showing my contempt for that company; the way they have treated the workers. I would urge everyone to boycott Dell products."
Fine Gael's deputy finance spokesman Kieran O'Donnell said: "It seems illogical that a company are making people redundant, and then when temporary contracts come up, they take people with no experience.
Management now need to engage with workers, and take people on who have worked with Dell, have provided the company with valuable experience, and helped the plant become the most efficient in the world. There should have been a mechanism looked at whereby people who are to be let go are going to work for a long period."
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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