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FORMER WORKERS AT the Vita Cortex plant in Cork will bring their six month long sit-in to an end tomorrow afternoon when they leave the factory for good.
The 32 workers have been receiving their redundancy payments from the company owner Jack Ronan in recent days and expect that all payments will have been received by tomorrow, allowing them to leave at 3pm.
A dispute over the terms of their redundancy payments last year prompted factory workers to stage a sit-in which lasted through Christmas and will have reached 161 days by the time it comes to an end tomorrow.
A resolution was reached on day 139 earlier this month but the former workers have continued to occupy the plant while they waited for the payments to reach their bank accounts.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie this evening, former factory employee Jim Power said that the entire workforce was “thrilled” with the news.
“We’ve been saying all along ‘What are we going to do when it all ends?’” he said. “We’ll all go for a bit of grub and a few drinks tomorrow but Friday will be very strange after all this time. People can’t believe it.
“A couple of times over the last few months we were so near and yet so far. I’d imagine that if we did leave on the 16 December (when the sit-in began) it would have been a matter of keeping in contact with two or three but we’ll all be keeping in close contact now.”
Power said that the first thing he’ll be doing is going on holiday, admitting that he’s not sure what he will be doing after that but saying that he would prefer that the younger workers at the plant get a job over him.
He continued: “I can imagine there will be a couple who would prefer to see the younger people getting a chance at work although the job scene isn’t great.”
Power said that the workers had no regrets about staging the sit-in and said that the “incredible” support from people on Facebook and from around the world had kept them going at times when it looked like no resolution to the dispute was in sight.
“Obviously five months can’t be brought back and we lost out on the best part of two seasons. We came away and we’re happy enough but in our minds this should never have happened.
“When we were hearing stories that we were being called blackmailers, that was only making us resist more. It’s amazing how people stuck together.”
Power said that he hoped the endeavours of the Vita Cortex workers will prompt the government into action to prevent anything like this happening again.
But he admitted that disputes such as the one he and his colleagues have been through may become more prevalent now the government has reduced the amount of money which an employer can claim back from the State for redundancy payments to laid off workers.
He added: “Enda Kenny said it was wrong and he said it publicly. The Tánaiste said that it should never have happened. We spoke to everyone but what are they going to do about it now?
“Are they just going to let us sail into the sun or are they going to do something about it? If they were serious, they’d do something.”
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Fantastic idea! Well done!
Self built personal terminators?
Can I just tell these kids they make me embarrassed to be an adult! Good job and keep thinking. A lot of children could benefit from this. Special mention to your teacher who I think could be also very special.
Well done kids! Great to see a solution to the problem developed by those closest to it. Let’s hope it catches on.
Well done them.
Fantastic idea as long as the concept of bullying is taught properly in the first instance. Parents often use the word bullying to describe instances that are in fact just two kids disagreeing with eachother. Children need to be allowed to develop resilience and should be explicitly taught problem solving skills in order to try to figure out such disagreements for themselves without the now ever-constant intervention of parents. Parents are doing their children no favours at all with the “mommy will fix everything” approach. Where genuine bullying is occurring I think this invention could really help open dialogue and would certainly remedy the problem that many teachers face in that often no report is made to teachers when something happens and they know nothing until a parent shows up at the door 3 days later.
Well done, amazing solution! I want one!!
Unfortunately anyone wearing a bully bug is likely to be bullied for it
Or your mates will be pushing the button for you, so you’ll end up having to have chats with the teacher later.
I agree
After being bullied as a kid I do agree. The kids are trying to help bless their good intentions, but I wonder how many have been bullied?
I know I never confided in a teacher, parents or any adult, only myself and the other girl that was bullied confided in each other.
I left the school and she was tormented for years after I left verbally and by exclusion. She still carries the scars as do I. She still lives in the area and never talks to any of her old class.
If they really want to help build a friends network to support those who are victims of bullying, give them a safe space where they can be themselves, have fun and not feel threatened.
Nice idea but in my experience bullying is only accepted as such by teachers if it physical. This App is indeed great in that situation but I have spoken to kids that felt they were bullied by the words and actions of other kids, told teachers and yet nothing was done about it. Teachers played it down. They tried to “reassure” ie convince the child it wasn’t bullying. Every kid in the school knew it was bullying but the teachers never did anything to address it.( Laziness or fear of approaching parents? )Not a word about bullying or treating others good or anything. What good is a bully alarm in that situation? Attitudes to what bullying is have to change first and how it affects the children has to be taken seriously before it can be tackled.
Well done all the same kids. It’s great to see innovation from a young age. I hope it encourages the girls to think seriously about studying science/ engineering/ maths where it is seen mainly as a boys career.
Great idea solutions requires to recognise bullying and not blame it on some mitigating factor.
Super proud of these kids and even more proud to be one of there parents alot hard work and dedication went into this project from them they can’t believe how far they have come
It’s called a fist
Sean, I think your idea to stop bullying has quite a lot of merit, though I’d hit the parents of bullies where it hurts, in their wallets
Super proud of these kids I’m even more proud to say one of them is my daughter they have worked so hard for this they can’t believe how far they have come
Super proud of these kids and even more proud to be one of there parents alot hard work and dedication went into this project from them they can’t believe how far they have come
So bullying is getting more common then?
Fair play to these kids making a stand.on bullying these kids a credit to their school teacher and parents well done St Audeons
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