In January 2009, Waterford Crystal went bankrupt. The company’s main factory, in Waterford, Ireland, was closed, and 480 people were fired. Many of them had worked there for more than forty years. But the Waterford workers refused to give up their jobs without a fight. They staged a sit-in that lasted for almost two months, demanding that they get their jobs back or, at the very least, that some manufacturing of this iconic brand remain in Ireland.
FOCAL POINT’s Raise the Last Glass follows two Waterford workers as they fight to save both their jobs and a bit of Irish heritage.