Former Greencore workers to hold mass demonstration

FORMER Greencore Irish Sugar workers are to hold a mass rally next month, to coincide with the period when a new harvest of sugar beet should have been planted.

The planned rally is the first of a number of events to highlight the plight of workers who lost their jobs, in May last, with the demise of the sugar plant in Mallow.

A small number of workers, involved in packaging, remain at the plant.

The protest action is in response to the alleged failure by Greencore to pay the full redundancy package recommended by the Labour Court.

The company insists it is meeting the terms of the Labour Court recommendation. Greencore is currently seeking a judicial review of the Government’s decision to allocate €98 million of a €145m EU sugar restructuring fund to it.

Ciaran Buckley, chairman of the former workers’ group, said:

“Since mid-May, 75% of the workers have not been able to find new jobs.

“They worked for Irish Sugar for up to 45 years and for many that is the only employment they knew.

“I worked there for 33 years.

“The company has €33.4 million of our money. They are making €120,000 in interest on money that should be in our bank account.

“When workers met in Mallow last week feelings were running very high. The numbers coming to these meetings are getting stronger as is their resolve.”

Mr Buckley said the planned rally would just be the start of a number of protest events.

“We had strike action sanctioned by the unions and we will decide on a weekly basis whether or not to implement it,” he said. “We will certainly not wait until the outcome of that judicial review in October before taking the step.”

Strike action would involve stoppage by workers still employed by the company to package sugar from last year’s harvest as well as the sugar from McKinney’s in Northern Ireland.