Newbridge Debenhams workers join national strike protests seeking redundancies
Calling for entitlements
Over a hundred part time anf full time workers at Debenhams in Newbridge staged a public protest that is being supported by local politicians. Ongoing pickets by the Newbridge workers is anticipated.
The Newbridge workers, many with over 25 years services, are appealing for Debenhams to pay their redundancy.
On Tuesday, May 26, last, Debenhams workers in Newbridge joined a national strike campaign.
Pickets were held in Newbridge town, attended by a number of local politicians on the day, including Cllr Peggy O'Dwyer. She says that the economy is in a very bad state.
Cllr O'Dwyer said: “Debenhams was good to Newbridge but Newbridge was good to Debenhams. These were very loyal staff.”
Debenhams workers recently voted to engage in industrial action across all eleven Debenhams locations by a margin of 97% in favour, A key objective of the industrial action campaign is to prevent the removal of any remaining company assets from the closed stores and to pressurise the Debenhams parent company in the UK to pay a fair union negotiated redundancy package to their staff in Ireland.
Commenting on the first two of many planned pickets Gerry Light Mandate, Assistant General Secretary said:“Mandate stands fully behind our Debenhams members demand for a reasonable and fair redundancy package. These workers have been disgracefully treated by their employer and their anguish and frustration is exacerbated by attempts by the company to remove assets from one of the stores.”
He said: “In Cork, our members bravely managed to prevent an insidious attempt by company representatives to remove assets from the empty Debenhams Patrick Street location. Our members, legally protected by an official ballot for industrial action, stood firm. They are extremely single minded in their determination to secure a fair redundancy package and their union will provide all the necessary support to help them achieve that justifiable objective.”
He said “These eleven Debenhams locations will be subject to ongoing pickets no matter who decides to operate a business from them and our campaign will incrementally intensify accordingly. This union and its members will do everything within its power to halt the transfer of valuable assets from all eleven locations until a fair and satisfactory resolution to this dispute has been agreed.”