Yesteryears: Ultimatum to Tipperary factory workers - sign or the plant closes

We go back all of 40 years for our YESTERYEARS feature this week, to our edition dated May 7, 1983.
Our lead story that week was industry-related and concerned a meat plant in Cahir closing down its beef processing operation because of the refusal of 100 employees to accept new conditions of employment. Production at the factory had practically stopped as a result of the dispute which involved members of the ITGWU. Approximately forty administrative staff were not affected by the dispute and continued to work.

The 100 workers had been issued with an ultimatum the previous week, according to an ITGWU spokesman, Mr Edwin Fitzgerald, who told The Nationalist that the workers were told to sign the document or the plant would close down. The union intended to bring the issue before the Labour Court.

We also reported on our front page that an Independent councillor on Tipperary UDC, Dr John Wallace, who had previously been a member of the Labour Party, had resigned from the Urban Council. The piece stated that Dr Wallace intended to throw himself fully into the Pro-Life Amendment campaign and hoped to return to the political field as a Fianna Fáil candidate in the local elections.
In an interview with The Nationalist, Dr Wallace accused journalists of having behaved disgracefully in their coverage of the Pro-Life Amendment controversy, seeking to manipulate public opinion with scarcely concealed pro-abortion articles.

In another story we informed readers that the discovery of a 700 BC bronze sword at Aughnagomaun, Cashel the previous year was confirmed to The Nationalist by the National Museum which described it as “a very significant archaeological find.” It had also been ascertained that the Derrynaflan Chalice, found by Clonmelman Mick Webb, which had been in the British Museum for cleaning and restoration was now back in the keeping of the National Museum and would go on public display that July. At the time it had been the subject of legal proceedings which Mr Webb was taking against the museum authorities concerning its ownership and settlement of his position as finder.