Documentary about Debenhams strike to air at UCC tonight

THERE were emotional scenes at the Dublin premiere of a documentary about the Debenhams strike, and the film is set to receive its Cork launch tonight.

The documentary, 406 Days, tells the story of a strike which made history as Ireland’s longest-running industrial relations dispute.

The film received its red-carpet premiere in Dublin’s Lighthouse Cinema last weekend, closing out the Dublin International Film Festival, and playing on three screens to meet the high demand for tickets.

406 Days, which is directed by Joe Lee and produced by Fergus Dowd, has won the Irish Council of Civil Liberties Human Rights Award, and will receive its Cork premiere tonight at UCC’s Boole Library.

Valerie Conlon, former shop steward at Debenhams on Patrick Street, told The Echo she was looking forward to premiere.

“We got so much in Cork, Cork was just so good to us, and I think it’s very important that students will be able to see what a strike means, what can happen, how strong people can be when they stand together, and it’s great to just bring this home,” Ms Conlon said.

In April, 2020, approximately 1,000 Debenhams workers at 11 stores across the county were informed by a generic email that their jobs were gone as the retailer was pulling out of Ireland.

The mail informed staff that they should their local social protection office, or citizens’ advice centre, and it added that they would not receive redundancy payments agreed in 2016 negotiations.

In that agreement, the company had committed to pay two weeks’ ex-gratia pay per year of service, plus the legal minimum statutory two weeks of pay.

Workers took direct action, mounting picket lines which they maintained for 406 days during the pandemic, showing up every day despite rain, snow, and threats of arrest to demand that the of the 2016 redundancy agreement were honoured.

Staff blocked stock from leaving shuttered stores for more than one year. The strike eventually came to an end when a proposal for a €3m training fund for the workers was put to a ballot, and was accepted by a majority.

Ms Conlon attended last weekend’s Dublin premiere of 406 Days, and she said the three screens at the Lighthouse Cinema were completely sold out.

“It was amazing to see the documentary on the big screen and to see people’s reactions to it, the amount of clapping throughout, and we got a standing ovation afterwards,” she said.

“When we came out of seeing it, the amount of people who were coming over and congratulating us and telling us it was wonderful to see what strong women we were, it was amazing, absolutely amazing.

'EMOTIONAL'

“It was very, very emotional, it was surreal to see what we had done, coming up on a big screen like that, and then to hear that we had won the award for best film before we even went in, it was just unbelievable,” Ms Conlon said.

Socialist TD for Cork North Central, Mick Barry, attended the Dublin premiere and said he had “never seen so much style in one place” in his life.

“It’s refreshing to see a film documentary which is unashamedly on the side of working people in a strike situation,” he said.

“The premiere was a great night, and I hope that Monday night in Cork can be a real celebration of the Cork Debenhams workers and the fighting trade unionism that they are now a symbol for,” Mr Barry said.

A test case, relating to complaints taken by around 750 former Debenhams workers over the way they were made redundant, is currently before the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).

If successful, some former Debenhams workers could be entitled to four weeks of redundancy pay.

A WRC hearing on March 3 concluded with the adjudicator saying he would inform both sides of his decision “in due course”.

The €3m training fund, promised when the dispute ended, has had limited take-up by former employees and will only be available for another eight months.

Inspired by the Debenhams workers, Mick Barry TD brought the Companies (Protection of Employees’ Rights in Liquidations) Bill 2021, dubbed the Debenhams Bill, to the Dáil in 2021. If ed, that legislation would make workers preferential creditors in a liquidation so they would be paid what they were owed as a priority.

The Bill is currently at committee stage.

Tickets for 406 Days at UCC’s Boole Library can be obtained on Eventbrite.