{"id":10240,"date":"2016-10-14T14:44:08","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T13:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=10240"},"modified":"2016-11-10T11:43:22","modified_gmt":"2016-11-10T11:43:22","slug":"wall-of-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=10240","title":{"rendered":"Wall of silence"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The wall of managerial silence since last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s announcement of large scale redundancies at the GKN plant in Yeovil has been branded \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a disgrace\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 by Unite, the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest union.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The union has written to GKN Aerostructures (Europe and Asia) CEO John Pritchard asking him to explain the reasoning for the redundancies amongst the 300-strong workforce and even the possible closure of the site.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The GKN workers make airframes for Italian-owned Leonardo Helicopters – formerly AgustaWestland which is on the same site. Speculation is rife that Leonardo wants to take the work back \u00e2\u20ac\u0098in house\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite regional officer Heathcliffe Pettifer said: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bA wall of managerial silence from senior executives has descended following last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s announcement – it is a disgrace.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Angry and frustrated\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members are confused, angry, frustrated and feel badly let down – but they continue to turn up for work in that determined and professional way that is their hallmark.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe reps have met with members and management locally at Yeovil. However, there has been very little news from CEO John Pritchard who is the key decision-maker – this is despite telephone calls and writing directly to him.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHowever, as a result of my lobbying, the site\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s general manager was asked to arrange a meeting with me on Tuesday (18 October).\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In his letter to John Pritchard, Heathcliffe Pettifer wrote: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bPresumably GKN discuss these issues on a regular basis with customers, and feedback is actioned immediately.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bDid Leonardo give any kind of advanced notice that this work was not of an acceptable standard or it was no longer cost effective, leading them to bring it back in house?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

‘Due diligence’<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI need to be satisfied that due diligence has been applied, prior to Unite the union making any formal decision in response to last Friday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s announcement.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the summer, Leonardo lost out to Boeing in its bid to gain the majority of the work for the latest generation of Apache attack helicopters for the British army.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The wall of managerial silence since last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s announcement of large scale redundancies at the GKN plant in Yeovil has been branded \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a disgrace\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 by Unite, the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest union.   The union has written to GKN Aerostructures (Europe and Asia) CEO John Pritchard asking him to explain the reasoning for the redundancies amongst the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[624,122],"wps_subtitle":"Unite demands explanation on helicopter jobs","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10240"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10240"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10246,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10240\/revisions\/10246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}