Get real about Industrial Jobs
mayo |
worker & community struggles and protests |
opinion/analysis 
Saturday October 23, 2004 02:57
by Keith Martin
kmartin at dna dot ie
Time to address the problem of jobs in Westport
Cllr Keith Martin, an Independent Cllr on Westport Town council says it is time to "get real" about industrial jobs in the town.
Get real about Industrial jobs
Cllr Keith Martin says its time to “get real” about industrial jobs in Westport. Cllr Martin says he feels that it is misleading to discuss bringing industrial jobs to Westport.
According to Cllr Martin “Industrial jobs in Ireland are dead and gone. There are no industrial jobs to be had anymore. We have seen this in Castlebar where one profitable factory after another have moved elsewhere because they can make more money by paying staff less in countries in Eastern Europe and the Far East.
Westport has to look towards jobs in the service industry and retail sectors as well as increasing those in the tourism industry. We have to look at things like call-centres and jobs from leisure industries like fishing, marine activities, hill-walking and the spin off from a marina. There will be no more factories built in Westport as it is too expensive to employ Irish people. Instead we have to look at business and retail parks as the employment centres of the future.
Cllr Martin adds “that only recently I was talking with members of Buncranna Town Council and they are facing a loss of 47% of their town’s rates with the departure of the ‘Fruit of the Loom’ factory. This is the fate of any town which relies too heavily on ‘Industrial’ jobs. We are fortunate that in Westport we have a large industrial employer who have stuck with our town through thick and thin but we will not get employers like these ever again. Industrial jobs are no more and its time to stop talking about them”
Comments (3 of 3)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3You are right up to a point. Without doubt the percentage of the workforce employed in manufacturing will decline in almost all Western countries in the next 25 years. As a matter of interest, the decline in Ireland over the past 25 years is less than in any other OECD country. However, it hardly matters. Provided a country has low labour taxes, low corporate taxes, an enterprise culture etc, it will generate other jobs to take their place. Ireland is the prime example of this. In the past decade the number of people employed in manufacturing has fallen slightly, but the total number employed has increased by 50%, the largest increase in the world. That's why unemployment is 4% and we have massive net immigration. Other countries to do well in increasing total employment are the UK, the USA and Australia. These are all countries with relatively low taxation and a strong enterprise culture. Countries which have done badly in replacing lost manufacturing jobs with other jobs are mainly the high-tax ones in the continental EU. Rather than whining about what is an inevitable trend, you'd do better to learn the lessons that these countries provide.
I hope your prediction is wrong about no more industrial jobs for Westport with the announcement of over 300 jobs to go in Alergan (not too much thick or thin there). Its sad that a politician only sees people as being too expensive, not in their true worth. The reality is that there are still high value manufacturing jobs for well trained workers and the councilor should be seeking these instead of calling for low paid low skilled service jobs.
It does matter very much.Both Britain and Ireland are losing their national identities as their Governments pursue globalist economic policy at the expense of indigenous Industry.
The so-called "Celtic Tiger" was the biggest confidence trick ever,pulled on a demoralised and gullible public who have been almost literally brainwashed by internationalist propaganda from all of the main parties.Ironically,the so-called "Nationalist" and "Republican" parties seem perfectly willing to throw away every last vestige of our national independence.
What this country needs more than ever is policies designed to encourage local enterprise and the rebuilding of a local industrial base behind protective tariff walls.
We need to stop the flood of cheap imports which is killing Irish industry and also the flood of cheap labour from abroad which deprives the host countries of a skilled workforce and the chance to make any real improvement in their own national economies.
We fell for the Euro-Hook,Line and Sinker and we're paying the price for our folly.It's too late to undo all the damage now but if the political will is there we can "Give Ireland back to the Irish" as the song says
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