{"id":19167,"date":"2019-10-04T11:32:15","date_gmt":"2019-10-04T10:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=19167"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:55:08","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:55:08","slug":"harland-and-wolff-win-infrastrata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=19167","title":{"rendered":"‘New future’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Triumphant Harland and Wolff staff on Thursday (October 3)\u00c2\u00a0 walked back into work at Belfast\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s historic shipyard after a nine week occupation that saved the firm.<\/p>\n

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The workers, who garnered international attention for taking over the yard to prevent it being asset stripped after it went into administration, are now employed by energy firm InfraStrata.<\/p>\n

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InfraStrata, which is building a gas storage plant off the Irish coast, said it will retain all 79 staff still working at the yard and has plans to increase the workforce to 400.<\/p>\n

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Harland and Wolff<\/a> senior shop steward Joe Passmore said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is a historic day for us and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re incredibly proud of what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve achieved. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re determined that this company is going to be great again.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis workforce has worked incredibly hard to get this and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll not let this opportunity go. This is a new future for us and we know our new owners have the same vision that we have. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wait to get back to work now.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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\"harland2\"<\/p>\n

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The occupation had been difficult at times, Harland and Wolff worker David Wilson admitted.<\/p>\n

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Wilson, who has worked at the firm since he was 16, said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re absolutely delighted. The occupation was hard work. There were a lot of ups and downs and delays. It did upset life for a while, but looking back it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been worth it. If we hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have done what we did, Harland and Wolff wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have existed in its current state.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe object first and foremost was to save our jobs, but at the end of the day it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s to give the young men and women of Belfast and Northern Ireland the opportunities that I had. To come in, learn skills, meet brilliant people and have a future.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Unite regional coordinating officer Susan Fitzgerald praised the workers for their vision and determination to secure the yard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s future.<\/p>\n

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She said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAll along they said it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t about them, that they were merely custodians of this shipyard, this place of skills and craft, and they were holding it for future generations.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis yard today is here for one reason only, because of strength and self-sacrifice of the Harland and Wolff workers supported by their trade unions.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner echoed Fitzgerald\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comments, saying the workers were inspiring.<\/p>\n

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He said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bInspiring not just for themselves, their families and their communities, but inspiring for working people across the whole of the UK. They never gave up.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Today (October 4), Harland and Wolff workers have negotiated a day off to attend a rally in Ballymena in solidarity with Wrightbus<\/a> workers who are fighting for the future of the bus manufacturer, which went into administration last week.<\/p>\n

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

Triumphant Harland and Wolff staff on Thursday (October 3)\u00c2\u00a0 walked back into work at Belfast\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s historic shipyard after a nine week occupation that saved the firm.   The workers, who garnered international attention for taking over the yard to prevent it being asset stripped after it went into administration, are now employed by energy firm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19172,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[36,1204,219],"wps_subtitle":"Triumphant Harland and Wolff workers go back to work under new owners InfraStrata","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19167"}],"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=19167"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24937,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19167\/revisions\/24937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}