'We're not going away' - Vita Cortex workers join Debenhams staff at Cork rally
Debenhams shop steward, Valerie Conlon, said the former workers remain as determined as ever five months since losing their jobs. On day 161 of the official picket of Debenhams stores today are (front) are Ciara Hartnett (20 years service) and Donna Higgins (14 years service) with (at rear) Gillian McSweeney, Ellen Manning and Orla Dowling. Picture: Larry Cummins.
When their marathon 161-day factory sit-in ended in May 2012, the former Vita Cortex staff felt confident they'd done enough to ensure that workers would never face a similar battle for a fair redundancy.
But as they stood with former Debenhams workers in Cork today as their campaign for a fair redundancy reached the 161-day mark, they lashed out at the government and said it’s clear that lessons haven’t been learned.
Former Vita Cortex worker, Cal O’Leary, said: “We had politicians out with us, and they said they were going to do this, and they were going to do that, but what does a person have to do? I can’t believe it’s happening again.
“We have three of the country’s top politicians in Cork at the moment, Micheál Martin, Michael McGrath and Simon Coveney. They are all great men in their own right. Micheál Martin saved thousands of lives with the smoking ban, but this is on their own doorstep, they should be doing something. Stop making promises, just sort it.
“Surely somebody can pick up the phone? It’s not too late to negotiate.”Â
He was speaking as he and several former colleagues who were involved in that 2012 sit-in at the Cork foam factory stood with the former Debenhams staff in the city today as pickets continued outside the closed Debenhams stores on St Patrick's St and in Mahon Point. Similar pickets took place at other closed Debenhams stores.Â
Mr O'Leary's former colleague, Jim Power, said they were promised during their sit-in that legislation would be introduced to protect workers.
“If this situation is fixed in the next week or two, it will be forgotten about again until the situation arises again. We have three senior politicians in Cork at the moment and they should put their heads together to sort this out,” he said.
He also urged the public to support the former Debenhams workers.
“Support is everything. We had tremendous support for our situation. The Debenhams workers have to stick with one another, their families have to stick with them.
“After this length of time, they might as well stay at it. They have been at it so long. I’d advise them not to throw in the towel and stick at it.”Â
Another former colleague, Greg Marshall, said when they ended their sit-in, they felt hopeful that something would be done to ensure workers would not find themselves in a similar situation.
“But it’s happened to Clerys and others. Lessons weren’t learned. I would urge all sides to sit down now and resolve this,” he said.
Debenhams shop steward, Valerie Conlon, said five months since losing their jobs, they remain determined.
“We are all in this for the long haul. We are going to keep on fighting. We are not going away,” she said.
“We are more determined because at the beginning we thought that this would last a few days, or a few weeks at most, but the fact that it is going on a lot longer is making people angrier.”
ÂDebenhams Retail Ireland Ltd (DRIL) ceased trading and moved into liquidation during lockdown on April 9 last following the appointment of an administrator to the UK parent company, which the company said was insolvent.
This led to the withdrawal of Debenhams’ group funding support to the Irish arm of the business, rendering the Irish operation unviable, and leaving 1,000 out of work.
Despite the trade union Mandate negotiating a redundancy package for Debenhams staff in 2016 which included four weeks’ pay per year of service, the liquidator KPMG reported that there were no assets to pay the staff, leaving them with statutory redundancy of two weeks’ pay per year of service.
Dozens of workers have been officially picketing 11 closed Debenhams’ stores since then in pursuit of what they say would be a just settlement of four weeks’ redundancy pay per year of service.
The liquidators came forward with an offer to provide a €1m fund to about 1,000 workers on top of statutory redundancy payments.
But the workers dismissed it as an insulting offer. And when some occupied Debenhams stores in Dublin and Cork, the liquidators withdrew the offer.
Ms Conlon, who was among six people involved in the occupation of the St Patrick’s St store in Cork last week, said they met the Taoiseach in the city afterwards in a bid to ramp up political pressure for a government intervention. But she said there has been little progress since.
“The lack of progress in resolving the dispute has been disheartening,” she said.“Everybody was on a high last week - but this is only the beginning. An offer was made and that can only get bigger.
“I’m confident that the dispute can be resolved because they know the workers are not going away. It is wearing us down. People are leaving their families to come in here every day (to picket the store) but last week just made people stronger.
“The sense we have is that the government is thinking of the employers and not about the employees. They really do need to start helping us because it’s not just us that we are campaigning for. We are thinking about everybody in the future, and those workers who are coming after us.”Â
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The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has reiterated its full support for the official strike action by the Debenhams workers, and demanded government intervention to break the deadlock.
Executive council members urged the Taoiseach to introduce legislation to protect terms and conditions of employment in the event of receivership.
General secretary Patricia King said the government “must offer more than sympathy to the Debenhams workers”.
She called on public representatives to support “the ongoing attempts by Mandate and Congress to find a resolution to the situation in which workers find themselves".Â
“Proposals put forward jointly by Congress and Mandate are intended to address the concerns of Mandate and its members in this trade dispute immediately, based on well-established international best practice,” she said.
“The resolution of this dispute requires legislative change and we call on all Oireachtas members to take the necessary steps to ensure this happens forthwith.
“The best interests of the workers will only be served by swift political action, not sympathy, platitudes, or political point-scoring.
“Congress and Mandate will continue to make ourselves available to discuss and expand on any details of our proposal.”
It began almost nine years ago on nothing more than a gut instinct and a feeling of injustice.
The Vita Cortex sit-in went on to become one of the longest-running industrial disputes in the history of the State, longer than the Dublin Lockout of 1913, and became a powerful symbol of workers’ rights.
And despite promises that workers would never find themselves in such a situation again, former Debenhams workers face a similar struggle.
The Vita Cortex foam factory in Cork was occupied by 23 workers when it closed on December 16, 2011, after it emerged that staff would not receive their redundancy package of 2.9 weeks’ wages per year of service.
Their struggle for a fair redundancy package struck a chord and they were inundated with public support, with messages from soccer legends Alex Ferguson and Paul McGrath, former president Mary Robinson, philosopher Noam Chomsky, actor Cillian Murphy, and dozens of Cork sport and GAA stars.
Some 5,000 people marched through the city in February 2012 to support them.
Talks in May led to a deal that saw the workers paid an undisclosed sum by company owner, Jack Ronan.
The marathon sit-in ended on May 24, 2012 with a ceremonial march out the factory gate.
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