WITH an air of uncertainty still hanging over the future of Dell at Raheen this Wednesday, suppliers in the region are increasingly concerned about the impact any curtailment of activities would have on them.
There was a growing acceptance this Wednesday that assembly work was almost certain to cease at the giant Raheen plant, affecting 2,000 jobs, with the possibility that 1,000 staff being retained in office administration and other duties in the Dell network.
The company signposted its plans last year to outsource assembly work on its computers to other plants in less developed countries, and where costs were lower.
The Limerick Post met with one local Dell supplier, with a workforce of 35.
He claimed he was told in early December that his contract would end early in the New Year.
“Dell is our sole customer…we are geared towards supplying their needs and while we are on the lookout for business elsewhere, it is looking bleak. The reality is we will have to close, with the loss of all jobs. There are others in a similar predicament”.
While Defence Minister Willie O’Dea and Tanaiste Mary Coughlan travelled to Texas in December to meet with Michael Dell and plead with him not to shed jobs in Limerick, they were, according to one business source, wasting their time.
“Dell are looking at their entire operation worldwide and do you honestly believe when directors and management of the company sat down at their round table to discuss overtures made to them, that they were going to be influenced in any way by Minister O’Dea and Tanaiste Coughlan? No doubt they entertained similar pleas from other plants affected in Dell’s overall review of its operations. It should be pointed out that Dell does not manufacture anything in Raheen…they simply assemble computers there with all components delivered to them”.
Any downsizing at Dell would have serious consequences for Limerick’s commercial and business life, especially suppliers, the property market, taxi and private bus operators, etc.
Workers emphatically state they have been kept in the dark about the future of the Limerick plant.
According to Minister O’Dea, there had been little contact between Dell and the Government in recent days.
