{"id":10650,"date":"2016-11-21T16:54:32","date_gmt":"2016-11-21T16:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=10650"},"modified":"2016-11-21T16:54:32","modified_gmt":"2016-11-21T16:54:32","slug":"standing-up-to-corporate-greed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=10650","title":{"rendered":"Standing up to ‘corporate greed’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Workers at drinks giant Diageo have voted to take industrial action over plans to slash their pensions at a time when the company is making massive profits.<\/p>\n

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Members of Unite voted by an overwhelming majority for industrial action at the company, whose brands include Johnnie Walker, Bells, Smirnoff and Guinness.<\/p>\n

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Unite members across Diageo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s UK sites voted 82 per cent in favour of industrial action short of a strike, and 77 per cent in favour of strike action.<\/p>\n

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Diageo plans to change the Diageo Pensions Scheme into a career average scheme worth much less to members.<\/p>\n

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The company also plans to close a separate scheme – the Diageo Lifestyle Plan – to new employees, and replace it with a new defined contributions scheme.<\/p>\n

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The company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 2015 profits were \u00c2\u01412.8bn.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are proud of our members, who have sent a clear message to Diageo that they must keep their pensions promises,”\u00c2\u00a0said Unite regional officer\u00c2\u00a0Pat McIlvogue.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNo-one takes industrial action lightly \u00e2\u20ac\u201c especially with Christmas coming up \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but Diageo is behaving like Scrooge.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is a company that is rolling in cash. Diageo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chief executive Ivan Menezes received \u00c2\u01413.8m in total payments from the company in 2015 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c including \u00c2\u0141424,000 in pension contributions,” he added. “Its last reported profits were nearly \u00c2\u01413bn. The company recently increased its dividend to shareholders by 5 per cent.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is corporate avarice on a scale that even Charles Dickens couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t imagine. But this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the Victorian era, and our members will stand together in the face of this corporate greed. We will support them to make sure they get fairness and their promised pension rewards.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Diageo has several sites in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Runcorn in Cheshire that could be affected by the dispute.<\/p>\n

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Members of the GMB union also voted in favour of industrial action.<\/p>\n

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Unite Scottish secretary Pat Rafferty said the union would be asking politicians to support the Diageo workers and to raise the matter in Holyrood and Westminster.<\/p>\n

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“The UK is on course to be the most unequal and unfair country in the developed world,” he said. “That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because for decades now, workers have been getting less and less, while shareholders and fat cat executives have been getting more and more.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite members at Diageo are taking a stand – and as a country, we need to stand with them,” Rafferty noted. “We will be calling on every MP and MSP for their support. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a clear choice between the values of fairness and greed.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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In recent weeks, BMW, AWE Plc (the Atomic Weapons Establishment), Gatwick Airport Ltd, US multinational Honeywell and the Post Office have all announced that they are planning to close their defined benefit pensions. Unite has pledged to support workers at all these organisations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Workers at drinks giant Diageo have voted to take industrial action over plans to slash their pensions at a time when the company is making massive profits.   Members of Unite voted by an overwhelming majority for industrial action at the company, whose brands include Johnnie Walker, Bells, Smirnoff and Guinness.   Unite members across […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[489,270,90,132],"wps_subtitle":"Workers vote for industrial action against drinks giant","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10650"}],"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=10650"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10655,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10650\/revisions\/10655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}