{"id":11657,"date":"2017-03-03T16:08:44","date_gmt":"2017-03-03T16:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=11657"},"modified":"2017-03-03T16:08:44","modified_gmt":"2017-03-03T16:08:44","slug":"tin-pot-dictators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=11657","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Tin pot dictators&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Bosses at 2 Sisters Food Group in the West Midlands have been behaving like \u00e2\u20ac\u0098tin pot dictators\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 when it comes to workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights, Unite said today (March 3).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The union said that in the last two months new management has unpicked many years of established and stable industrial relations at the five Unite-recognised plants across the region.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The heavy handiness of the new bosses has prompted a demonstration by workers on Monday (March 6) at the Tesco store at 46 New Square,\u00c2\u00a0West Bromwich\u00c2\u00a0B70 7PR\u00c2\u00a0between 11am-12.00pm. The supermarket giant is a customer of 2 Sisters.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe view from the workers is that the company wants to maintain a quasi-slave culture on minimum terms to generate maximum profits,&#8221; said Unite acting national officer Sulinder Singh.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite is now engaging with customers and stakeholders to stop the march of these tin pot managerial dictators \u00e2\u20ac\u201c hence the demonstration on Monday to highlight the alleged abuses.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen Unite reps have successfully challenged the employer on breaching terms and conditions, agreements and the law, the management has responded by dismissing one rep, allegedly assaulting another rep and suspending four others in a period of eight weeks,&#8221; Singh added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite has also protested at the use of covert CCTV and audio recording equipment which was hidden in plug sockets to spy on workers at the plants and, thereby, violating workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 dignity and respect.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite members and reps are routinely being threatened for whistleblowing or raising food safety issues, as, we believe, there is a dangerous focus on the products leaving for dispatch at any cost.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis sort of cavalier management is not the sort of professional relationship Unite expects from the biggest food company in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe hope that the employer is prepared to engage at the highest levels with its loyal and hardworking workforce to find pragmatic solutions to the important issues we have raised.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bosses at 2 Sisters Food Group in the West Midlands have been behaving like \u00e2\u20ac\u0098tin pot dictators\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 when it comes to workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights, Unite said today (March 3). &nbsp; The union said that in the last two months new management has unpicked many years of established and stable industrial relations at the five Unite-recognised plants [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[701,489,205],"wps_subtitle":"Workers protest against food firm","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11657"}],"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=11657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11658,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11657\/revisions\/11658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}