{"id":17458,"date":"2019-03-01T16:08:32","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T16:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=17458"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:57:12","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:57:12","slug":"national-tragedy-appledore-shipyard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=17458","title":{"rendered":"‘National tragedy’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The closure of the 164-year-old Appledore shipyard on March 15 is a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bnational tragedy\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and the latest in a \u00e2\u20ac\u015btruly shocking\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 litany of negative business decisions related to the Tory\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s handling of Brexit, Unite said today (March 1).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The closure of the north Devon shipyard, which follows on from announcements that Honda<\/a> is closing its Swindon site, Ford<\/a> is cutting jobs at its Bridgend plant and that Nissan<\/a> has scrapped plans to build the X-trail in Sunderland, is \u00e2\u20ac\u015bundoubtedly\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 linked to Brexit uncertainty, the union said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In further evidence of the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s harmful Brexit policies, the date for Appledore\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s closure was announced at the same time as it was revealed that the government has had to pay \u00c2\u014133m to Eurotunnel<\/a> after excluding the company from its \u00e2\u20ac\u0098no deal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 planning.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Commenting on the shutting of the Appledore shipyard, regional officer Heathcliffe Pettifer said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBrexit uncertainty, undoubtedly, did play a part in creating this imbroglio.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Italian yard shipyard, Vittoria, which won the Maltese order, effectively sounding the death knell for Appledore, benefited from EU funding and Italian state aid.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bClearly, the UK government does not fight for its own shipbuilding<\/a> industry with the same vigour as European competitors.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pettifer said that while the future of Appledore\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s workers at the moment is \u00e2\u20ac\u015bfluid\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 because some are working at nearby Devonport, the closure is still a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bbitter blow\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 for the workers, their families and the Devon economy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c all of which have been betrayed by a government that has \u00e2\u20ac\u015bno manufacturing strategy\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the decision by the government to exclude Eurotunnel from its no deal planning has left workers at the company, which provides the fastest and only permanent connection to the continent and moves millions of tonnes of freight every year, fearing for their jobs.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 350 strong membership at Eurotunnel are worried that the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s awarding of contracts to ferry companies \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one of which has now been cancelled because the firm had no ships<\/a> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c will be used to entice customers away from Eurotunnel.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite national officer for the rail industry Harish Patel said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members still haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t had a sensible answer as to why Eurotunnel was excluded from Grayling\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Brexit<\/a> planning. The feeling is that he simply forgot it was there.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe only way to restore confidence in the Brexit transport planning process is for Grayling to put out of his misery by resigning or being sacked.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said the closure of Appledore, along with the rest of the long-line of Brexit-related disasters caused by the government, are evidence of the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bappalling consequences of Theresa May\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s destructive Brexit strategy\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere is now a truly shocking number of firms across UK manufacturing either heading for the exit, cancelling investment, shifting their headquarters or issuing dire warnings about the consequences of no deal,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Tories claim to be the party of business, but they have failed to deliver on a desperately needed industrial strategy and completely disregarded the genuine concerns raised by some of Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s biggest employers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Honda, GSK, Nissan, Ford, Airbus and Unilever to name but a few \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and are still running the clock down towards crashing out the EU.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLet me be clear: This is people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lives and the future of communities across the UK we are talking about.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Turner called on the government to \u00e2\u20ac\u015bstop this madness\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, rule out no deal and take up Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposals to deliver a Brexit that protects jobs, investment and long-term rights by ensuring the UK remains in a customs union and retains single market access to the EU.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe majority of MPs know this is the only course of action that will prevent the wanton destruction of our economy while honouring the result of the referendum,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe time for Theresa May to abandon ideological red lines and act in the national interest rather than her party’s is now.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The closure of the 164-year-old Appledore shipyard on March 15 is a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bnational tragedy\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and the latest in a \u00e2\u20ac\u015btruly shocking\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 litany of negative business decisions related to the Tory\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s handling of Brexit, Unite said today (March 1).   The closure of the north Devon shipyard, which follows on from announcements that Honda is closing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1042,333],"wps_subtitle":"Unite slams closure of 164-year-old Appledore shipyard","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17458"}],"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=17458"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25477,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17458\/revisions\/25477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}