Grievance over a pay agreement that expired in January has led to workers at Kyte Powertech initiating 24-hour strike action on Friday.
SIPTU organiser Martin O'Rourke says members sought a "reasonable proposal" from the company but nothing was forthcoming.
Mr O'Rourke added that while the plant - which is in Cavan since 1977 - has never been the subject of industrial action before, workers feel they were left with no other choice.
He said that efforts by the Labour Court to resolve matters between staff and management also failed.
Despite this, Mr O'Rourke says that employees are willing to engage to find a solution right up to Friday's planned strike action.
"No union, or company in fact, is a monolith so different approaches are tried in different locations," he continued.
"Where members are telling us that they can't sustain the level of inflation they are facing, and that they need to secure additional earnings, then the union will seek that for them."
Meanwhile, in a statement to Northern Sound, the company pointed out that it had fully engaged with SIPTU in recent months on negotiating an improvement in employees' pay. `
A spokesperson stated it had accepted the Labour Court recommendation on enhanced pay, even though it went beyond what it was prepared to pay.
"As a result of the challenging and uncertain business context, Kyte Powertech cannot afford to further increase labour costs beyond the Labour Court recommendation which the Company views as the only basis for a solution," he said.
"The employees' decision to take industrial action is regrettable."
