Travel group seeks order on sit-in

THOMAS Cook will this morning seek a full High Court injunction to force striking workers to move from the Grafton Street store where they have been staging a sit-in since last Friday.

The travel agent received a temporary injunction from the court on Saturday, but the 40 striking workers ignored it and continued their protest at the city-centre shop.

The action by the staff, which include two pregnant women, began on Friday after management announced the immediate closure of the company’s two offices in the city.

The workforce is seeking an improved redundancy package.

Gerry Doherty, general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association which represents the staff, yesterday said that unless agreement is reached by tomorrow, he would formally ask ICTU to organise a boycott of Thomas Cook holidays by its 800,000 members.

Mr Doherty also said he was taking legal advice after being summoned to the High Court today.

“Morale’s fantastic. We’re into day three now and I thought people would be starting to get tired, but no, morale hasn’t dipped one iota,” he said.

“[The High Court order is] not putting them off at all, they’re absolutely solidly united.”

On today’s court appearance he said: “The High Court will only rule on the legality of our actions. We know we have already won the moral argument against a rich German owned company which is treating its Irish staff like second-class citizens.”

Over the weekend the protest spread to a Direct Holidays outlet – a Thomas Cook subsidiary – in Dublin’s Talbot Street.

Caroline Cullen, 30, a worker with Thomas Cook for eight years, said the protesters were not being put off by the court order.

“Thomas Cook can come and talk anytime and we don’t need to go ahead with this,” she said.

Ms Cullen said passersby had provided them with food in support of their cause.

Management moved to shut the firm’s two Dublin stores a month ahead of schedule, claiming they wanted to minimise any disruption to customers.

The travel company had announced in May it was abandoning its high street operation in Ireland.

Some 77 jobs are being axed with the closure of the two Thomas Cook branches as well as a Direct Holidays outlet, although the latter is not due to shut until the end of the summer.

Mr Doherty said a demonstration supported by TDs and other trade unionists will take place outside the store this morning. Thomas Cook has insisted it would maintain its Irish business at its back office and call centre operation in Parkwest, Dublin, with 70 positions being retained.

The company said it brought forward the closure to minimise disruption to customers.

Thomas Cook said it was offering five weeks salary per year of service as a redundancy package, which will drop to two weeks if the workers do not accept it.