Vita Cortex workers determined to hold firm
Workers staging a sit-in at a foam packaging manufacturing company in Cork say they have no desire to spend Christmas there, but they won't leave until the terms of their redundancies have been settled satisfactorily.
Workers at the Vita Cortex plant on the city's Kinsale Road have been staging the protest since the company shut last Friday.
The 30-strong group are caught in a stand-off between their employers and NAMA over redundancy payments to which they say they are entitled.
The money for the redundancies has been frozen in the accounts of a sister company controlled by NAMA, which says the money must be used to pay the parent company’s multimillion-euro debts.
SIPTU spokesperson Anne Egar said the workers are fighting for what they believe they are due.
"They have made out rosters so each one of them will have the opportunity to spend some time with their families on Christmas Day," she said.
"Nobody wants to be spending Christmas lying on a piece of foam on the floor of what's essentially a large shed.
"But they are going to do it, and they feel that they have to."
