Hundreds plan march to protest Greencore redundancy handling

HUNDREDS of people are to march through the streets of Mallow on September 23 to protest at the way one of the town’s biggest former employers has handled the redundancy package for its workers.

Former Greencore Irish Sugar employees, their families and local representatives will gather at Navigation Street in the north Cork town at 2.30pm and march to the town hall where the organisers hope they will be addressed by a number of invited politicians and trade union representatives.

The march has already been given the greenlight by gardaí according to the chairman of the former workers’ group, Kieran Buckley, and the workers are in the process of creating a number of banners highlighting their plight.

Mr Buckley said the protest is just the first of a number of events planned by the workers to highlight the fact that 17 weeks after Greencore closed, the company still has not paid them the full redundancy package to which they are entitled to under the Labour Court recommendation.

The company has claimed the package it has offered meets the Labour Court’s requirements.

The National Implementation Body is expected to give a statement on the impasse between workers and their employer later this week.

“We wanted to leave Irish Sugar even if was against our will with our dignity intact, our full redundancy entitlements, good will between us the workers and the company that had been so good to us and generations before us for the past 72 years,” said Mr Buckley.

“On a weekly basis the committee for The Former Irish Sugar Workers are meeting and are reviewing all options available to them and are delighted with the support they are receiving from all former employees.

“We will be requesting our fellow trade unionists in both Ireland and Britain to support a boycott of all Greencore products, which includes Hazelwood Foods and associated subsidiaries in our fight for full and proper entitlements.

“If a company like Greencore can set aside a Partnership Agreement, one that has been registered in the Labour Court then the future looks bleak for other workers who have gone down a similar road.”

Meanwhile, Labour TD and former Irish Sugar employee Joe Sherlock said he has rescinded his shareholding in Greencore in protest at the “continuing mistreatment of workers at the former Mallow plant.”

Deputy Sherlock held 400 ordinary shares since the privatisation of Irish Sugar.

“The current abhorrent treatment of workers at Mallow is the straw that has broken the camel’s back,” he said.

“I have rescinded my shares in protest at the unethical treatment of Mallow workers, who have been nothing but loyal to the company.”