{"id":10542,"date":"2016-11-14T11:18:03","date_gmt":"2016-11-14T11:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=10542"},"modified":"2016-11-14T11:18:03","modified_gmt":"2016-11-14T11:18:03","slug":"kept-in-the-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=10542","title":{"rendered":"Kept in the dark"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>The top management proposing 221 job losses at the Yeovil GKN plant, which makes airframes for helicopters, was accused of \u00e2\u20ac\u0098supercilious behaviour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in its treatment of the workforce.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite said today (November 14) that the management\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attitude during the redundancy consultation had been \u00e2\u20ac\u0098poor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and the union had now registered \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a failure to agree\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, the precursor for an industrial action ballot.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite regional officer Heathcliffe Pettifer has written, again, to GKN Aerostructures (Europe and Asia) CEO John Pritchard asking for an explanation for the proposed job losses announced last month.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The GKN workers make airframes for Italian-owned Leonardo Helicopters &#8211; formerly AgustaWestland which is on the same site \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and speculation is hardening that Leonardo wants to take the work back \u00e2\u20ac\u0098in house\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In his letter, Heathcliffe Pettifer wrote, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bRedundancy consultation at Yeovil has again been poor, resulting in the union reps reluctantly registering \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a failure to agree\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt seems, again, the union is not being taken seriously. This kind of supercilious behaviour from an employer, in respect of such a serious issue, is unacceptable.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe questions I put to you four weeks ago remain unanswered and have not been addressed during consultation.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Heathcliffe Pettifer said that the Yeovil workforce are \u00e2\u20ac\u0098decent hardworking and loyal employees\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, and deserve to know what lies ahead for them, even if this does include site\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s closure.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on the next steps, Heathcliffe Pettifer said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite has written, yet again, to John Pritchard. The failure of the company to engage in a constructive manner means that we will be considering holding an industrial action ballot.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSuch a ballot would show that this excellent workforce will not walk quietly into the jobless night, without making a strong protest against throwing these highly skilled manufacturing jobs onto the funeral pyre of corporate greed.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The questions that Unite said that it has not received satisfactory answers to over the last month were:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>why Leonardo made the decision to take the work \u00e2\u20ac\u0098in house\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, or when GKN was first made aware of Leonardo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intentions?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>whether a significant order placed now at GKN in Yeovil would immediately change the situation?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>why GKN has been unsuccessful in securing other work, despite tendering for contracts separate to those for Leonardo?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>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>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The top management proposing 221 job losses at the Yeovil GKN plant, which makes airframes for helicopters, was accused of \u00e2\u20ac\u0098supercilious behaviour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in its treatment of the workforce. &nbsp; Unite said today (November 14) that the management\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attitude during the redundancy consultation had been \u00e2\u20ac\u0098poor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and the union had now registered \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a failure to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[624,126],"wps_subtitle":"Unite slams GKN for 'poor' redundancy consultation","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10542"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10542"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10543,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10542\/revisions\/10543"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}