Waterford Crystal protest in tower hotel.

ziedth

I was out this afternoon enjoying my first day as an unemployed man and met mammy and nanny ziedth in the tower hotel for a coffee,

Then, maybe 40 to 60 former waterford crystal workers stormed the lobby and had a sit in infront of us. All very enjoyable untill the sh!t hit the fan, it started to get very heated between he guards/workers/staff and at this point poor nan got scarred and brought her off.

Now my point is, who the hell do these pople think they are? I can fully sympathise with their situation and i fully support that they have been hard done by.

At one point that where all shouting "give us our money now" and then who i can assume is the manager pointed out that he desk ran a swich board behind them and the lady was more or less abused that whoever was staying there had robbed them, after she said that it has nohing to do with the tower they where yet again shouted down.

Now the tower hotel is trying run a business in a very competitive sliding industry and these people pick there busiest day of the week and basically turn the place into a riot room.

I will not paint all former workers with the same brush but i for one hope the people who i saw in the tower today don't get a penny and i genuinely mean that. I fully understand that they have been screwed over but they more or less walked all over an innocent business to get their point across.

jayp

Its a bit harsh to hope that people dont get a penny out of whatever settlement is offered.Sounds like an extreme reaction from these WC employees but I think if any of us had given anything up to 30+ years service to an organisation and were being "screwed over" to use your own words you would not take matters lying down. Having said that there is still no excuse to abuse hotel staff or disrupt the hotels business. I'm sure if I was as angry as some of these people I wouldnt be acting logically but that still doesnt excuse such behaviour.

ziedth

jayp wrote: »

Was there a WC employee meeting being held in the Tower?

I dont understand what is meant to have gone on, did the former WC employees just pick random Tower Hotel staff to give out to or were they directing their anger at WC management?

Sorry I'll make that more clear,

That "Manager" was from what I could see a was connected with the tower Hotel. AFAIK there is someone staying there or having a meeting and they decided to pull this untill they get the money is owed to them.

I stand corrected if i am wrong.

Ok granted Jayp choice of words by saying "hope they don't get a penny" maybe a bit strong and taking away from the bottom line of my post but it just really annoy's me when anyone thinks that can put themselves on other people/business while having a protest.

I'm also really going to stress how over the top heated it was when the Manager of the tower asked them to stop shouting.

mike65

Anyone close to the WC workers like to chip in?

Psychedelic

http://www.wlrfm.com/tabId/503/itemId/2565/Tanaiste-challenged-by-Crystal-workers.aspx

http://www.munster-express.ie/local-news/gilmore-says-crystal-closure-was-a-scandal/

old gregg

so a bunch of people decided to take the law into their own hands and attempt to force their way into a meeting that had nothing to do with their cause just so they could show scant respect for the management and staff of the Tower Hotel and those Chamber members attending the meeting.

I'd charge them as criminals.

Cabaal

I don't see how these muppets think taking the law into their own hands to a point that if they did meet any ministers there most likely would have been physical voilence!

The lot of them should be arrested (the protesters)

ziedth

i thought for a min today that i'd get a bit of stick for my first post but well said lads, i personally have lost all respect for any workers involved.

Cabaal

They are in a ****e situation don't get me wrong, I wouldn't wish they don't get a penny but at the same time they should only get whatever money can be given to them within the law and which is available.

In respect of waterford glass, everybody has known that the writings been on the wall for them for a very long time and some people had been offered redundancy in the past but choose to stay on perhaps hoping they'd be offered more.

The smart and sensible people got out when the going was good, but it seems some people couldn;t see the wood through the trees and perhaps believed that sheer union strength may win the day for them money wise.

They were wrong!

Now it seems that more recently they believed that sit-ins and shouting and perhaps violence will get them what they want but instead its now getting the general public to turn against them because alot of the general public has now been made redundant and have no pity for them because some of them (the general public) are in more difficult situations (those that were self employed who are not entitled to payments etc)

Sully

Funny to see Gilmore jumping on the bandwagon again - Crystal Factory and University. Clearly trying to get votes from anyone by supporting issues close to them.

wellbutty

The smart and sensible people got out when the going was good, but it seems some people couldn;t see the wood through the trees and perhaps believed that sheer union strength may win the day for them money wise.

Those that were ALLOWED got out while the going was good, remember that half of those that applied in 2007 were DENIED the redundancy deal.

By the way, 4 months is a hell of a long time to wait for statutory redundancy.

Nolanger

If they're protesting for their statutory redundancies then Davitt House, Adelaide Road, Dublin 2 is where they should go not The Tower Hotel.
They should know this as it's around the corner from Deloitte where they have already protested.

seanybiker

they did get a very raw deal in all fairness but this bully boy tacticts are not gonna help their cause one bit.
I didnt go down to support any of the protests to be honest. I felt if I went down to support their cause then I should be going around to almost every factory in the country supporting people who lost their jobs.