Have politicians lost interest in Vita Cortex?

Backlash over claims that workers were 'used' for publicity

Former Vita Cortex workers have dismissed claims that politicians are ‘using’ the workers for their own gain. The 32 former employees at the Kinsale Road foam manufacturing plant said they knew the “nature and dynamics” of their situation. “There is nothing to be gained by suggesting anything else. If (we) have been used as pawns or hostages it has been by the company owners,” they said in an issued response.
This comes after John McHenry, the son of Vita Cortex’s director and former non-executive chairman, Sean McHenry voiced his criticism of "certain sections of the political establishment who have sought little more than political gain from their public utterances to date, despite having the true facts or indeed access to the correct information available to them”.

However, Ballyphehane’s Jim Power who worked as a driver at Vita Cortex for 42 years told the Cork News that no politician has been in contact with the workers in recent days. “Since last Thursday week, there has been no contact with politicians, both local and national. At the beginning, there was an avalanche of anger from politicians over what happened. Now the silence is deafening,” he said. 

The backlash continued further yesterday, Thursday as Fine Gael councillor and former Vita Cortex shareholder Jerry Cronin condemned the picketing at Mr McHenry’s home. “A lot of them (former Vita Cortex workers) are fine people however, even just one person protesting is one too many. It’s very intimidating. Look at the furore of the revenue letter that went out to pensioners. That was a letter while this is something more physical happening to a couple in their 70s,” said Cllr Cronin. He added that Mr McHenry “drove the company in the 1970s and 1980s when trading was tough”, adding, “he was a class act aided by the workers”.

He also said that, as a solicitor, he believed that if the workers are entitled to their redundancy money, then they should “get what they were promised”. Cllr Cronin added, “a lot of stuff is being said” with “emotions running high”. “I’d rather this to go through arbitration rather than the media,” he said.