
406 DAYS – The Debenhams Picket Line
406 DAYS – THE DEBENHAMS PICKET LINE tells the story of the 1,000 Irish Debenhams workers who were made redundant through a generic email on the 9th of April 2020, after Debenhams UK Retail Ltd shut all 11 Irish stores, including their flagship store on Henry St. Dublin 1.
The workforce – 95% female – had been denied an earlier agreed redundancy package. They voted to go on official strike and blocked stock being removed from the 11 stores by the liquidator.
The workers remained on the picket lines, through the Covid-19 pandemic, for 406 days – making this the longest industrial dispute in Irish labour history.
The telling of the very human stories of courage, determination, and friendship that lay behind the conflict are told here for the first time in 406 DAYS – The Debenhams Picket Line.
406 DAYS is a contemporary story about inequality and a struggle for fairness by an extraordinary group of ordinary people.
406 DAYS – The Debenhams Picket Line is exclusively in cinemas across Ireland from May 26th.
406 DAYS Screenings
Cork
Triskel Arts Centre (from Sunday June 11th)
Dublin
Galway
Watch at home
Directors
Joe Lee
Actors
Jane Crowe
Carmel Redmond
Michelle Gavin
Meave Murphy O’Leary
Producers
Fergus Dowd
Running Time
90 minutes
Release Date
26th May 2023
Genre
Documentary