Employment centre ‘work in’

FORMER workers at an Employment Resource Centre in Cork have reopened the closed centre and are running it voluntarily.

The eight ex-employees are staging a ‘work in’ at the resource centre on North Main Street, which closed on December 22 after the loss of a Fás funding contract.

Formerly run by the Cork Council of Trade Unions, the centre was reopened this week in a protest move inspired by former workers at the Vita Cortex plant. Both operations closed three days before Christmas.

“We have the keys and we are doing a rota to keep the office open from 9.30am until 3pm, said former centre manager Willie Fitzgerald.

“I lost my job here last month. I signed on the dole yesterday. We are demanding that the trade union movement continue to operate the centre for the 55,000 unemployed people in Cork,” he said.

A demonstration is scheduled to take place outside the resource centre today at 1pm.