{"id":14620,"date":"2018-02-14T15:53:39","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T15:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=14620"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:59:09","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:59:09","slug":"govts-brexit-chaos-unite-ireland-region-discuss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=14620","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Alice in Brexit-land\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Unite members from the Ireland region gathered in Belfast on Monday (February 13) to discuss the growing danger of a hard Brexit to the peace and prosperity of the pivotal region and formulate plans to prevent it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Around 70 union representatives, from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, attended the regional\u00c2\u00a0Brexit<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0conference to examine the risk to jobs in their respective industries posed by the increasingly untenable and uncertain path taken by Theresa May\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s government.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Addressing the conference, Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s regional secretary for Ireland Jackie Pollock said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe decision to leave the EU will define the economy and politics of Ireland for generations. Working people on both parts of this island must now cope with the fallout from a Brexit they voted against or didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a say in.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBrexit poses at least a triple threat to Ireland north and south: to jobs and living standards, to workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights and to the peace process which has transformed lives and communities.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In December, May signed an agreement with the EU to maintain \u00e2\u20ac\u015bregulatory alignment<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 to avoid a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which voted to remain within the bloc.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fudge <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The agreement, however, is seen as a fudge that simply kicks the contentious issue down the road and is further complicated by the fact\u00c2\u00a0Northern Irish DUP MPs are propping up May\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s minority government.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pollock said the Tories have created an \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAlice in Brexit-land\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 scenario in which the UK government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s promise to prevent a hard border is contradicted by its insistence that the UK will not be part of a customs union with the EU in the future.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The serious repercussions of undoing free trade and travel between the Republic and Northern Ireland through a hard border were raised repeatedly by members.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Diageo beverage company shop steward, Ryan Sutters, was one of many in attendance whose company sends products back and forth across the border.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sutters told the conference, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are a cross-border organisation. Our beer is brewed (in the Republic), sent over the border to us to be packaged in Belfast and then sent back to be delivered all over the world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI have no doubt that if there is a hard border our workplace will go down overnight. We can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be caught sleeping on this.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sutter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s concerns were echoed by Unite members south of the border.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Uncertainty<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Jan Gallagher, who works for the Republic of Ireland\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s business support agency Enterprise Ireland, said firms are facing a huge amount of uncertainty because Theresa May\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s weak administration cannot form a workable position.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bFor the companies we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re working with there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vulnerabilities around suppliers, vulnerabilities around customer bases, vulnerabilities around finances and the impact of currency fluctuations. We could see major job losses.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s political officer for the Ireland region, Brendon Ogle, said it is essential the campaign against a\u00c2\u00a0destructive Brexit<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0is stepped up during the second phase of the negotiations, with politicians and business leaders being made to heed the concerns of workers across Ireland.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members are going to feel this. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to feel it in their pockets, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to see it in their communities, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to see it in their daily lives. This can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just be decided without discussion or debate in the corridors of government,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Ogle.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe need a conference in the border area where we can invite the rest of the trade union movement, where we can invite business and politicians from both sides of the border and challenge them. Unite is well placed to do so because it is our members in the north and south who will pay the price.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Unite members from the Ireland region gathered in Belfast on Monday (February 13) to discuss the growing danger of a hard Brexit to the peace and prosperity of the pivotal region and formulate plans to prevent it.   Around 70 union representatives, from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, attended the regional\u00c2\u00a0Brexit\u00c2\u00a0conference to examine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10177,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[486,37,219],"wps_subtitle":"Govt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Brexit chaos: Unite Ireland region discuss","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14620"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14620"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26393,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14620\/revisions\/26393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}