Silent night for Debenhams workers
Former Debenhams employees in Cork are looking forward to a nice relaxing Christmas with their families this year, with their phones on silent!
This time last year, former employees of Debenhams stores in Mahon Point and on Patrick’s Street were on high alert despite a ceasefire being called by liquidators KPMG.
The workers spent Christmas carrying out hourly checks on both premises to make sure KPMG hadn’t sent packers into the buildings to retrieve stock.
The stock was a crucial element in the workers’ fight for fair redundancy pay after the floundering British chain announced the closure of all 11 of its Irish stores in April 2020.
Now, seven months after staff left the picket lines after more than 400 days, former Debenham’s shop steward Valerie Conlon says she and her “picket pals” can sleep with easier minds this Christmas.
“My phone is now on silent. Last year my phone was not on silent.
“Last year I wasn’t sleeping at all because my ear was constantly out for the phone in case it would ring or there would be a text alert,” she told the Cork Independent.
Ms Conlon added that one of her colleagues who was pregnant when picketing first began, can now enjoy her first proper Christmas with her baby girl.
“Claire and baby Grace will be having their first Christmas this year properly. Grace is over a year old so this year Claire will be able to enjoy her and not have to be watching the phone 24 hours a day,” she said.
Ms Conlon said that since their protest ended in May, many of her colleagues have gone into new employment or started courses, and that she herself is now working full-time in administration at a Covid testing centre for people entering hospitals for have a procedure.
She said: “Some people have started courses, a few people have actually gone back into retail because they said they love it and that’s what they want to do. Other people then are gone into office jobs, and a good few are happy to stay home with their children rather than go back to work for another while.”
Looking back over the whole ordeal, Ms Conlon says that, to her surprise, she, and many of the picketer, miss their time together fighting for justice.
She said: “I met the girls down the lane and the amount of them that said that, in a way, they actually missed it because we were all still together. If somebody was feeling down and they weren’t even meant to be on the picket, they used to come down just so they would have company and be amongst friends. It was the fact that we were fighting for something we really believed in.”
Ms Conlon, who had worked on the premises when it was still Roche’s Stores, says it’s now quite tough for her to walk past the building.
“I had worked in there for 24 years, so I was there when Stanley Roche was there. I was only in town last Saturday and I had to meet somebody outside Debenhams. It’s awful to see the building like that, to see it empty, such a historical building on St Patrick’s Street standing idle,” she said.
In the months since picketing ended at stores around the country, writers Fergus Dowd and Sue O’Connell created a book detailing the whole story.
Tales from the Debenhams Picket Lines is now available in Waterstones and Eason’s and has been distributed to universities and colleges around the country.
“So, we’ve a book and all!” said Ms Conlon who, asked who should play her if there is ever a movie made out of it, she replied: “Well, she’d have to be small anyway because I’m only five foot!”