{"id":12001,"date":"2017-04-04T16:46:10","date_gmt":"2017-04-04T15:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=12001"},"modified":"2017-04-05T15:45:12","modified_gmt":"2017-04-05T14:45:12","slug":"pensions-fight-goes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=12001","title":{"rendered":"Pensions fight goes on"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Unite members at BMW\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Swindon plant will be staging a protest tomorrow (April 5) from 12pm until 2pm over the carmaker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plans to close their final salary pension scheme.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s protest outside the plant between gate 1 and gate 2 on Bridge End Road in the Stratton St. Margaret, Swindon follows last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 93 per cent vote in favour of strike action by workers at Swindon and the German carmaker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s other UK sites at Cowley, Goodwood and Hams Hall.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The protest involving workers who make parts for the Mini, including doors and bonnets, coincides with tomorrow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meeting of BMW Group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s European Works Council at the Swindon site. It is expected that Unite representatives will update their European counterparts on the current dispute.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>BMW\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan to close the pension scheme by May 31 2017, could see some of the car firm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s UK workforce lose up to \u00c2\u0141160,000 in retirement income. It follows figures from the carmaker last month, showing a surge in BMW Group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s net profit of eight per cent to \u00e2\u201a\u00ac6.9bn, as well as record year for Mini sales and a six per cent rise in Roll-Royce sales.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBMW Group workers at Swindon and other UK sites will not let BMW pinch their pensions,&#8221; said Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is effectively deferred wages which the German car maker is seeking to take away through the closure of the final salary scheme. Swindon workers and the rest of the UK workforce deserve better than the possibility of losing up to \u00c2\u0141160,000 in retirement income.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWith industrial action highly likely and all the disruption that it brings, we would urge BMW to step back from its May 31 deadline to close the pension scheme and negotiate meaningfully to find a solution which is good for the business and good for the workforce.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unite members at BMW\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Swindon plant will be staging a protest tomorrow (April 5) from 12pm until 2pm over the carmaker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plans to close their final salary pension scheme. &nbsp; Tomorrow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s protest outside the plant between gate 1 and gate 2 on Bridge End Road in the Stratton St. Margaret, Swindon follows last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 93 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[602,721],"wps_subtitle":"Mini workers to stage \u00e2\u20ac\u0098pensions robbery\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 protest","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12001"}],"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=12001"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12002,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12001\/revisions\/12002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}