WHAT PRICE LOYALTY?

The worker at TOG maintenance contacted the World to express his fears for the future.

Staff have been told by bosses to stay at home because there was no work for them to do.

Unions only found out about the sale when they went in to find out why the men were being kept off.

The worker, who asked not to be named, said: "We have had lads who have just finished six 12-hour shifts and then Russ Whelan has turned around and said we are not getting enough work.

"They have done nothing to find us work. It's the usual ICI of late, just keep us in the dark.

"They are telling us to stay at home, because there's no work.

"But when you think, we have got 600 contract workers on the site."

The man, who has 30 years service at ICI, is worried about what the future holds, pointing to the experience of those who were transferred when O'Hares took over Avenue Workshops

"When they worked for ICI they used to have six weeks holiday. Before they even started working for O'Hares the lost a week's holiday and then another week was taken off them.

"It changed quite quickly once they were taken over."

The man added that the decision to transfer 40 workers back into ICI once the sale is completed will be divisive, with long-standing colleagues having to fight ech other for jobs.

"We've done a bloody good job and then they turn around and say they're selling us. What price loyalty?"

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.