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MEPs complain about Dell's Irish exodus
ACCORDING TO A REPORT at the Irish News online, a number of Irish MEPs are complaining to the European Commission about the way it helped Dell up sticks and move to Poland.
Coinciding with the release of a fund for Dell's Irish workers from the European Parliament, the MEPs said that although the money, almost €15 million, would be useful to those workers left standing around with their hands in their pockets and the suppliers' vans sitting around idly, the EC still had to explain why it made it easy for the firm to close its plant and shift to one in Poland.
In total €50 million has been set aside by the Commission to help the company close one plant and open up the other, in the presumably much cheaper locale of Poland. And although the cash is handy, Sinn Féin MEP Bairbre De Bruin said, "It does not absolve Dell of their responsibility to the workers who have been made redundant in the pursuit of even greater profits."
De Bruin added, "EU policy has the effect of using public money to set worker against worker and country against country in a race to the bottom in terms of wages and conditions. If the profits are not big enough a company knows they will be subsidised (by Brussels) to move to a more profitable location." The Irish Times report adds that she referred to the cash donation as being only a "modicum of justice" for those ex-Dell employees.
UK Labour MEP Stephen Hughes implied that the Commission’s actions were a bit mental. "It is obvious that the Commission’s right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. Dell cannot close a plant relying on EU funds to help the workers who lose their jobs, then reopen another in another member state with subsidies from public funds."
We probably can't publish what Dell's unemployed Irish workers had to say. µ
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I wouldn't blame Dell here, they have a responsibility to stay in business and if operating costs somewhere else are more attractive then so be it.
Mahatma coat is right, Ireland simply let it slip through their fingers. Dell flagged a couple of years before pulling out that they were considering options.
The EU practices are another question. They want to strengthen the weaker nations thereby making Europe stronger over-all. Where that might be leading is a question for everyone.
From our own domestic point of view in Ireland, simply got to cut costs and become competitive. If we had leaders that could communicate vision and inspire hope then we'd probably buy into the no pain no gain philosophy, and start to move forward with at least some clear longer term objectives.
The whole point of EU subsidies paid by richer member countries to poorer member countries is to enable them to drag themselves up by the bootlaces and make a go of things. Ireland had its chance and shouldn't have sat back and expected the handouts to last forever.
And for those that don't understand how capitalism works here's the idiot's guide: Capital goes wherever the profits are highest and nothing else matters. Simple, eh?
I am going to repeat myself till a few more people get it. QUIT buing their products. Start to get together,pass it on to friends. Quit buying their products. Remember they are using your money to fight you, and its so easy people, shut your wallets.
And when Poland becomes too expensive, they'll move somewhere else.
The only reason they were in Ireland (200 miles from the main shipping port) were the cheap taxes and grants.
But a previous poster summed it up, that area (Limerick) is devastated now.
It already had social problems, and no with so much unemployment it wont get better anytime soon.
This is happening all over the world who ever will build it cheapest gets the work. We cannot compete with slave labor this is the internet age not the stone age.
I agree that the way this has worked out is, well, mad. Dell should be fined for this kind of behaviour.
However, if we ignore the Polish part, the reason for giving the money, in addition to redundancy, is that Dell was almost the only employer in that area of Ireland, so shutting down is the equivalent of the local pit closing.
I think the money is to help set-up new businesses and try and give some hope to what must be a pretty depressed area at the moment.
The EU is paying the Irish because of the massive impact this has had on that area of Ireland.
2500 jobs from a relatively small economy will probably lead to another 7000 lost jobs from companies that relied on Dell and their workers. If the EU and Irish governments don't try to help then that area will devastated and may never recover, people would simply move out of the area.
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/03/25/dell_limerick_withdrawal/
I'm confused here - isn't it normally up to a company to pay redundancy money when they lay off their employees? Isn't that the big scandal here - why is EC money (which I assume is ultimately coming from EC taxpayers...and possibly not just the Irish ones either!) being used to fund redundancy payouts for a non-EC commercial company?
I could perhaps understand it if it was public sector redundancies (because government payouts would also come from taxpayers), but not for commercial company redundancies. Anyone care to explain? Was it some sort of tax break/sweetheart deal to entice Dell to Ireland?