Smurfit Westrock is proposing 55 redundancies at its corrugated packaging facility in Lurgan, Northern Ireland, according to trade union Unite.
The proposed reductions represent around a third of the workforce at the site. Unite Union said Smurfit Westrock had cited cost pressures associated with operating older machinery and that work currently undertaken at Lurgan would be transferred to a facility in Dublin.
Unite, which represents the majority of workers at the plant, has raised concerns about the longer-term future of the Lurgan operation and called for investment to modernise the facility.
“Workers at Lurgan face losing their livelihoods because of the company’s long-term failure to invest and modernise. Unite is actively engaging with our membership on their options to respond to this and the longer-term threat it poses to the future of the site,” said Sean McKeever, Unite regional officer.
