{"id":12069,"date":"2017-04-10T14:46:41","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T13:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=12069"},"modified":"2017-04-11T15:54:01","modified_gmt":"2017-04-11T14:54:01","slug":"chicken-factory-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=12069","title":{"rendered":"Chicken factory at risk"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Just a day after Bernard Matthews announced on Thursday (April 6) that it would slash 69 chicken production jobs in Norfolk, the 2 Sisters Food Group said on Friday (April 7) that it plans to shutter a Smethwick, West Midlands chicken processing site, putting more than 600 jobs at risk.<\/p>\n

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Following the news, Unite called for immediate talks with management in its bid to save as many jobs as possible.<\/p>\n

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2 Sisters, whose founder and owner Ranjit Singh Boparan acquired Bernard Matthews last year, said at the weekend in a statement that the company will aim to offer 200 jobs at other West Midlands sites to affected employees and will seek to redeploy other staff in the region and elsewhere within the group.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe can confirm we are consulting with colleagues about a proposal to cease production at our poultry processing site in Smethwick and as a result the site could close,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the 2 Sisters statement read.<\/p>\n

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“The factory at Bevan Way, Alpha Business Park, is ageing and has significant challenges to meet the standards required by ourselves and our customers.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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The factory, which opened in 1996, exclusively processes chickens and supplies chicken portions and whole birds to retailers and other 2 Sisters sites. The site currently employs 630 workers — 530 of whom are Unite members — and processes more than 1,000 tonnes each week.<\/p>\n

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The firm said it did \u00e2\u20ac\u015bnot take this decision lightly\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and that it remains \u00e2\u20ac\u015bcommitted to our operations in the West Midlands and will work hard to ensure all possible options for colleagues are fully explored before any final decisions are made.”<\/p>\n

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Unite national officer for food Julia Long called the news \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdevastating for the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s workforce at the Smethwick site and their families.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite will be offering our members maximum support at this very worrying time,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added.<\/p>\n

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“Unite will study the implications of the announcement from the 2 Sisters Food Group and we will be strongly arguing the case to mitigate job losses thorough redeployment across the firm’s other operations in the West Midlands.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Just last month, Unite organised a protest against 2 Sisters Food Group bosses, who it accused of acting like \u00e2\u20ac\u015btin pot dictators\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/a>. The protest was held outside Tesco, a major client of the poultry firm.<\/p>\n

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According to Unite, when reps have successfully challenged 2 Sisters 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.<\/p>\n

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Unite also protested against bosses allegedly using covert CCTV and audio recording equipment hidden in plug sockets to spy on workers.<\/p>\n

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Long said Unite is holding urgent talks with management this afternoon over the proposed Smethwick site closure.<\/p>\n

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UPDATE <\/strong><\/p>\n

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Following this afternoon’s meeting, Long said, “We had a positive and constructive meeting with the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s management today (April 10) and have made a commitment to prepare a set of proposals to save as many jobs as possible.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe will be presenting our proposals to the management when we meet them again at Smethwick on Friday, April 21,” she added.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOne of the areas we will be investigating to mitigate job losses is redeployment across the firm’s other operations in the West Midlands, as it was made clear that the Smethwick site will close.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enter into speculation as to how many jobs may be saved.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis announcement has been devastating news for the company’s workforce at the Smethwick site and their families. Unite is offering our members maximum support at this very difficult time.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bDuring the 45-day consultation period, we will be fighting our members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 corner during further meetings with management to achieve the best outcome possible in terms of future employment opportunities.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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

Just a day after Bernard Matthews announced on Thursday (April 6) that it would slash 69 chicken production jobs in Norfolk, the 2 Sisters Food Group said on Friday (April 7) that it plans to shutter a Smethwick, West Midlands chicken processing site, putting more than 600 jobs at risk.   Following the news, Unite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[701,489,126],"wps_subtitle":"Saving jobs Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s top priority","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12069"}],"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=12069"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12077,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12069\/revisions\/12077"}],"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=12069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}