Approximately 150 Unite members employed at Balcas will take a week of strike action in an escalating industrial dispute at the Enniskillen sawmill. The strike will commence from 05:00 tomorrow (Friday 24 July) and continue for seven days.

Over the last month the low-paid workforce has taken three one-day strikes in pursuit of an improved pay increase. The strike follows rejection of an inadequate and below-inflation offer of a mere 50 pence extra in each of the next two years.

Unite is warning that the planned week-long strike action will severely impact production at Northern Ireland's largest sawmill.

Many workers at Balcas are paid little more than the minimum wage, and most have to work excessive overtime to bring in enough money to live.

Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary, said: "Balcas and Glennon Brothers is a highly lucrative employer that can fully afford to give their workers a decent pay increase. Balcas’ refusal to do so demonstrates it is putting profits before people.

“Unite will be backing the workers’ fight for fair pay and respect for as long as it takes.”

Balcas is highly successful and its latest published accounts recorded pre-tax profits of £18.7 million. Glennon Brothers of Longford, which owns Balcas, is rapidly expanding. As well as its sawmill in Longford and that in Enniskillen, it owns mills in Fermoy, Co Cork, and the large Invergordan sawmill in Scotland. In the last year it acquired Pontrilas, the largest timber processing mill in Wales and England with a turnover of £120 million.

Unite regional officer Albert Hewitt said: "The strike at Balcas will impact timber supplies across the region, but this is entirely the fault of management that has failed to table an improved pay offer and negotiate an end to this dispute. They have left their workforce with no alternative but to escalate their industrial action. These workers are determined to raise pay levels."

ENDS

For further information contact Alex Klemm (press office), Tel. +353-87-2606139