Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland

Day 159: Sit-in at Vita Cortex plant set to end as payments begin

The former workers at the plant in Cork have begun to receive their redundancy payments and expect to end their sit-in this week.

FORMER WORKERS AT the Vita Cortex plant in Cork have begun receiving their redundancy payments and could now leave the factory after a six month sit-in as early as today.

A spokeswoman for SIPTU has confirmed that the company owner Jack Ronan has begun transferring money into the workers’ bank accounts.

Some of the workers have already received payment but the 32 men and women at the factory on the Kinsale Road intend to leave together when they have all been paid.

SIPTU spokeswoman Anne Egar told TheJournal.ie: “The workers expect to leave this week. The company have told me we can have copies of electronic transfer receipts but the workers don’t mind waiting. Two more days isn’t going to perturb them.”

Egar added that she expected that all workers will have received payments by tomorrow but if not by then almost certainly by the end of the week.

A deal was struck between the foam manufacturing plant owner, Ronan, and workers earlier this month following a dispute over redundancy payments which led the workers to begin staging a sit-in at the plant in December after it had been closed down.

Their cause earned worldwide support including from the likes of Noam Chomsky and Sir Alex Ferguson.

On day 139 of the sit-in a resolution was found but the former workers have continued to occupy the plant until they have all received their redundancy payments.

This morning, the workers’ Twitter account tweeted: “Day 159…. it seems the end is in sight… It has been a long road but you all know that, you walked it with us.”

Read:  How the Vita Cortex workers held on for 139 days (and why Twitter mattered)

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
15 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fergal O' Reilly
    Favourite Fergal O' Reilly
    Report
    Dec 10th 2020, 1:14 AM

    That a 500 year leasehold was signed with a private developer in 1997, says a lot about the sad state of public planning in the city.

    274
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niamh Hand
    Favourite Niamh Hand
    Report
    Dec 10th 2020, 12:21 AM

    That’s a good news story to go to bed with. Good on Lord iveagh

    270
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute steve white
    Favourite steve white
    Report
    Dec 10th 2020, 12:38 AM

    @Niamh Hand: where was he the last 20 years?

    30
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fergal O' Reilly
    Favourite Fergal O' Reilly
    Report
    Dec 10th 2020, 1:11 AM

    @steve white: 20 years ago a still recent lease agreement was in effect, so he was as powerless to intervene as the rest of us.

    194
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute FlopFlipU
    Favourite FlopFlipU
    Report
    Dec 10th 2020, 5:09 AM

    @steve white: dope

    61
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Chris O'Sullivan
    Favourite Chris O'Sullivan
    Report
    Dec 10th 2020, 9:47 AM

    @steve white: drinking pints I’d assume

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute the-baldie-lad
    Favourite the-baldie-lad
    Report
    Dec 10th 2020, 12:25 AM

    Hands up if you agree that Alan Kelly is an eejit

    190
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mary Nugent
    Favourite Mary Nugent
    Report
    Dec 10th 2020, 1:25 AM

    @the-baldie-lad: utd fan out in the open was it Leo on the luas

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Shane McGrath
    Favourite Shane McGrath
    Report
    Dec 10th 2020, 12:22 AM

    Excellent news.

    96
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute DJ François
    Favourite DJ François
    Report
    Dec 10th 2020, 10:36 AM

    Be nice to have something along the lines of the English market in Cork

    38
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute muirhill121
    Favourite muirhill121
    Report
    Dec 10th 2020, 7:49 AM

    Hopefully, he won’t grant another lease to DCC so they can balls it up again!

    58
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Shay Flynn
    Favourite Shay Flynn
    Report
    Dec 10th 2020, 11:00 AM

    My dad had a butchers shop there for years.

    19
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Colm Molloy
    Favourite Colm Molloy
    Report
    Dec 10th 2020, 11:38 AM

    A market like the ones in Barcelona would be the job there..

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute D Cullen
    Favourite D Cullen
    Report
    Dec 10th 2020, 8:36 AM

    Should be sequestered by the state along with all lands and properties that were divided amongst the lords of the English elite!

    18
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Nick Caffrey
    Favourite Nick Caffrey
    Report
    Dec 10th 2020, 9:15 AM

    @D Cullen: That’d be great if the state were capable of managing the lands and properties. Read the article and you will understand that the State is not up to the job.

    67
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute El Sparko
    Favourite El Sparko
    Report
    Dec 10th 2020, 9:20 AM

    @D Cullen: so the state can then sell it on the ruthless developers and give themselves pay raises??
    No thank, at least Lord Iveagh will do something that benefits the people of Dublin, like he has done many times in the past.

    84
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul
    Favourite Paul
    Report
    Dec 10th 2020, 9:46 AM

    @D Cullen: except the Guinness’s are Anglo-Irish not English, just like many of Ireland’s rebel leaders of the past, Pearse / Wolfe Tone etc. The first Lord Iveagh was born is Dublin and is known for providing housing for the poor etc.

    42
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The world outside the M50
    Favourite The world outside the M50
    Report
    Dec 10th 2020, 11:06 AM

    His Christian/First name is very odd, don’t you think – ‘Lord’ ??

    11
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds