JTI Gallaher cigarette factory plant in Ballymena to close permanently by 2017

duggan1

saverbuyer wrote: »

Exactly. Tax credits are a £30 billion a year subsidy to big business.

Why pay a decent wage when the government tops it up with inwork benefits.

The unfortunate truth is that it is in no-ones interests to push wages up. Concentrate on getting living costs down instead.

warmhands.coldheart

qwert_yuiop wrote: »

...... Therefore the state is subsidising Moypark jobs. What a mess.

The state is Subsidising the entire Food Industry... It's called the Common Agricultural Policy !! in Europe....

New Zealand is pretty much the only country in the entire world that does not subsidise it's farmers however most of it's produce is sold through COOP's so the processors are owned by the farmers....

have a read at this... it only scratches the surface.


if there were no subsidies you're food shop would be 3 or 4 times what it is now !!

qwert_yuiop

warmhands.coldheart wrote: »

The state is Subsidising the entire Food Industry... It's called the Common Agricultural Policy !! in Europe....



if there were no subsidies you're food shop would be 3 or 4 times what it is now !!

Presumably our tax is paying for the CAP so what's the net benefit?

I know a wealthy farmer in Wexford (sounds like a song?) who has 300 acres of cereal ground. Guesstimate value 3 million euro.

Doing well, he'll get 2 to 3 tonnes of barley per acre, this year 130 per tonne, bit for straw - gross sales say 100,000. Costs at least half that, maybe more. Gross profit 50,000. Hopeless return on 3 million asset.


But....Single Farm Payment on 120 hectares of tillage ground....60,000 euro. Get in!

qwert_yuiop

duggan1 wrote: »

This is it. I've done work with the agencies that supply a lot of the (mainly) Polish staff and the answer is that places such as Moy Park specifically request Poles/Czechs. They don't always simply pay minimum wage either. The reasons are that they get a good shift out of them in general. They have a work ethic that they say we used to have. They are almost always amenable to overtime and extended shifts, whereas 'local' workers tend to refuse it.

People are conditioned to believe that chopping up meat and cleaning toilets are not 'proper' jobs, especially when their mate down the pub has a cushy council number. When I was unemployed I would have scrubbed anything for minimum wage, but being 'educated' meant I didn't even get considered for such work.

I wonder what will happen when the dole cap is forced through whether Stormont can agree or not.

saverbuyer

qwert_yuiop wrote: »

Presumably our tax is paying for the CAP so what's the net benefit?

I know a wealthy farmer in Wexford (sounds like a song?) who has 300 acres of cereal ground. Guesstimate value 3 million euro.

Doing well, he'll get 2 to 3 tonnes of barley per acre, this year 130 per tonne, bit for straw - gross sales say 100,000. Costs at least half that, maybe more. Gross profit 50,000. Hopeless return on 3 million asset.


But....Single Farm Payment on 120 hectares of tillage ground....60,000 euro. Get in!

So true, CAP distorts the market.

Why farm cattle, when you can farm the subsidy.

warmhands.coldheart

qwert_yuiop wrote: »

Presumably our tax is paying for the CAP so what's the net benefit?

Don't think it's all that simple...... Come on... It's the EU !!! Nothings Simple......... It's all You Scratch my back if you scratch mine..

Let's just say the French & Eastern European farmers do VERY well out of CAP compared to British & Irish farmers !!

qwert_yuiop

I liked that story about the corsican cattle farmers. The cattle run loose in the hills, hundreds of them. They each claimed the 300 cattle when they'd about 3.

Beats another franco-german war though.

GlynD

What a crying shame. Gallaghers was a great place to work I'm led to believe and was one of the stalwarts of the Ballymena employers. Most people working there would be thinking they had a job for life.

With 800 jobs going this is not just going to affect the local economy but also other towns and villages where workers come from.

Does anybody else think like me, that this is a sign of things to come? As the world's governments do their best to shut down the tobacco industry there are going to be a lot more jobs going in the next few years?

You can see why the tobacco giants are trying to get into the e-cig market. They desperately need to replace lost revenue from their European outlets.

In the meantime my heart goes out to anybody who's going to have a coul Christmas because of this.

Ref the CAP: fortunately Mrs Thatcher negotiated a rebate for the UK which few people seem to know about and certainly don't give her credit for. Details here.

Mistral001

Factories have traditionally always been high payers. I have worked on the production line a few times. Good pay and conditions and you leave your work behind when you clock off.

NAR

Downturn in product use, couple by foreign ownership who can source the product cheaper elsewhere, meant certain closure for Gallahers at some stage.

Wouldn't take a brain surgeon to work this out.