Workers at Portadown 'anchor' factory feel in limbo at its potential closure as politicians invited to emergency town centre rally

Unite the Union called the emergency rally in response to jobs potentially moving overseas to Lithuania and is asking election candidates what they are doing to defend manufacturing jobs in the area.

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Unite is hosting the emergency rally on Friday June 28 at St Mark’s Church, Portadown at 12.30pm after Glen Dimplex raised the prospect of shutting down its factory with potential loss of up to 300 Portadown-based jobs.

The Glen Dimplex plant, which is on the Lurgan Road, has been employing people in the Portadown area for more than 50 years and was previously known as Unidare.

In February the firm said it plans to invest €25 million in its Newry site, which will be repurposed into a centre of excellence for the manufacture of zero carbon, renewable heating solutions including heat pumps. However the panel and storage heating manufacturing may be transferring from the group’s sites in Newry and Portadown to a manufacturing site in Lithuania. It is understood the firm plans to close the Portadown plant by December 2025.

Neil Moore, Unite Regional Officer, is asking the firm to reconsider its plans. “This will not just affect our members or their families but also local jobs across Portadown. This is one of the anchor employers. We haven’t seen anything from politicians other than ‘it’s awful sad’ ‘we will support people who have lost their jobs’. There seems to be no desire, no ambition to save good manufacturing jobs.”

Mr Moore blamed a ‘lack of political will’. He said Glen Dimplex is ‘an incredibly profitable company’. “These jobs are being off-shored because of corporate greed. They are going to Lithuania where the minimum wage is much lower, where these jobs are not necessarily unionised. Our members have stood at picket lines and fought for decent cost of living pay increases, fought for their terms and conditions.”

He said Glen Dimplex is involved in renewables and in a profitable and far-from-declining market.

Unite representative at Glen Dimples David Holbeach said he felt ‘very let down’ by management because of the lack of information about the workers’ future. Mr Holbeach said workers’ mental health was affected as they were left ‘in limbo’. “Do we leave or stay?” he asked. “We have been completely left in the dark with no information from management at all.”

Mr Moore asked where the firm’s loyalty is to their Portadown workforce as it plans to expand in Newry with renewables. “Once jobs go out of the local economy they rarely come back. We want to put forward a real alternative that provides decent jobs in the local community.

"These guys have stuck through thick and thin, whether its the Covid Pandemic or the economic crisis. They have taken everything on the chin to protect their jobs and to protect this site.”

Glen Dimplex has been contacted for a response.