{"id":13145,"date":"2017-08-31T17:43:36","date_gmt":"2017-08-31T16:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=13145"},"modified":"2017-08-31T17:43:36","modified_gmt":"2017-08-31T16:43:36","slug":"come-clean-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=13145","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Come clean\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 call"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Royal Mail announced yesterday (August 30) that it would be flogging off property part of its central London Mount Pleasant sorting office to private developers Taylor Wimpey to build luxury flats.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Planning permission was secured in 2015 to build more than 600 residential units, in addition to space for shops and offices.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The move prompted Unite to call on the company to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098come clean\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 over the \u00c2\u0141193m sale. The union has demanded that the Royal Mail give cast iron assurances that development from the sale will not affect the work already being done at Mount Pleasant and that all jobs will be guaranteed now and in the future.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Feather shareholders\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 nests\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Unite also urged Royal Mail to pledge that cash received from the sale will be invested in the employees of the company and not, as Unite officer for the Royal Mail Brian Scott said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsimply used to further feather the nest of shareholders.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The sale of the Mount Pleasant land is the latest from the Royal Mail, which has made \u00c2\u0141400m from its central London land sales over the last few years, including the most recent sale, as well as its Paddington sorting office and another site in Battersea, South London.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Scott argued that Mount Pleasant is \u00e2\u20ac\u015ba site that is vital to those that work there and must not be undervalued for a quick return.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Money from sale <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe money realised from this sale should be used to benefit those who make it \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the employees,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt would be a disgrace if Royal Mail was to asset-strip its property portfolio simply to put the benefits into the pockets of investors.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Despite the Royal Mail imposing changes to its workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pensions, slashing thousands of jobs since it was privatised in 2013 and shuttering dozens of branches, the company still pays out more than \u00c2\u0141200m in dividends to its shareholders each year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Scott also criticised the lack of affordable housing that will be available on the new site after the Mount Pleasant sale.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is disappointing that less than a quarter of the homes planned to be built will be \u00e2\u20ac\u0098affordable units\u00e2\u20ac\u2122,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is land that came from a public sector organisation that was sold off cheaply by the previous government and which could have been used for the public good by providing many more homes that local people could afford.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Royal Mail announced yesterday (August 30) that it would be flogging off property part of its central London Mount Pleasant sorting office to private developers Taylor Wimpey to build luxury flats. &nbsp; Planning permission was secured in 2015 to build more than 600 residential units, in addition to space for shops and offices. &nbsp; The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4396,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[109,131,789,314],"wps_subtitle":"Unite demands answers from Royal Mail","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13145"}],"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=13145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13146,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13145\/revisions\/13146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}