Siptu write to Stryker CEO with safety concerns after another fire at Cork plant
Trade union Siptu, which has been raising concerns about the company's approach to health and safety for several years, has now written directly to the firm's chief executive in the US after the fire at one of its Cork plants this week.
It also plans to ask the Health and Safety Authority to investigate the matter.
Siptu spokesman Neil McGowan said it wants Stryker chief executive officer Kevin Lobo to intervene at the highest level to ensure that an urgent meeting between local management and worker representatives takes place. Mr McGowan said:
There are genuine health and safety concerns among the staff after this latest incident.
Stryker CEO Kevin Lobo on a visit to Cork in 2023. File picture
Fire broke out at the company's Tullagreen plant in the IDA Business Park in Carrigtwohill — one of three facilities it has in the area — on Wednesday.
Sources said that despite the fact that the fire broke out near the top of a large machine, and was burning for some time close to the plant ceiling, an automatic alarm system failed to sound.
One staff member who spotted the flames used a 'break glass' unit to set off the alarm, which triggered a full evacuation of the facility.
As staff assembled in zones in the car park, fire crews investigated the scene but the blaze was under control.
There were no injuries.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for Stryker described the incident as minor.
'All employees were safely evacuated as per our safety procedures. Our local emergency services were notified and attended the facility as a precaution. We're committed to a safe and healthy work environment at all of our facilities,' she said.
In 2021, the Irish Examiner revealed how six workers from across the company's East Cork sites — Tullagreen, Springhill, and Anngrove — had been raising health and safety concerns about the facilities with the HSA for the previous three years.
Then, in 2023, tragedy struck when one of two contract staff — who had been injured in an explosion while working on the roof of the company's Anngrove site — died two months later from his injuries.
One source said there are now 'real and genuine fears' among the workforce that it could take another serious injury before the company responds.
Stryker began operations in Cork in 1998 with 20 staff. Today, it employs more than 4,000 people across its Cork operations — its biggest innovation and manufacturing hub outside its US headquarters, and home to its European operations leadership.
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Agriland
a day ago
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