The workers at Waterford Crystal occupying the plant are an example to us all. Rather than accept the closure of the business, the loss of all the jobs and the destruction of the area’s premier industry; workers seized the buildings making liquidation impossible for the receiver.
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Noel Atkins and Pat Phelan, Waterford Crystal workers and Unite Shop Stewards, travelled to Cork last night to speak out against the attempted closure of the plant. They spoke from the heart as workers tossed on the scrap heap after decades of service. ... read full story

Workers have been occupying the Waterford Glass factory in Kilbarry for five days now after the receiver was unable to borrow further funds to keep the plant operating. Yesterday as 150 workers continued the occupation members of the Cork WSM visited the plant and interviewed Joe Kelly, the chairman of the Crystal Unite branch. The Cork branch later issued a statement in support of the occupation. The closure threatens not only the 700 jobs at and around the plant but if it had proceeded as planned by the receiver would have threatened their redundancy payments. Many workers have already discovered there is not the money in the company pension fund to cover their pensions. Last October the fund was 111 million euro in the red, a situation that can only have got worse since. Although one of the bids for the plant, that of Clarion Capital, would see some jobs being saved there is a danger these would be at greatly reduced pay and conditions. The author of the other bid, KPS, seems only interested in the "group’s intellectual property assets, which would include its brand names, product designs and manufacturing processes". ... read full story

This is the account of James - a WSM member from Cork - of what happened to him at the November 10th day of action in Rossport. James was the person with the bloody face whose image was featured on indymedia and the TV3 footage of the event. ... read full story