{"id":19191,"date":"2019-10-07T14:32:31","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T13:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=19191"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:55:08","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:55:08","slug":"give-us-land-open-gate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=19191","title":{"rendered":"Give us the land! Open the gate!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hundreds of protesters rallied in front of the Wrightbus factory in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, on Friday (4 October) calling for the firm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1,200 jobs to be saved.<\/p>\n

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Nearly 500 people marched through the town demanding that the bus manufacturer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s owner Jeff Wright \u00e2\u20ac\u201c who owns the plot the factory is situated on \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u015bgive us the land! Open the gate!\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Up to four bidders are prepared to buy the Wrightbus factory and re-employ staff, however it is understood that attempts to negotiate a deal have stalled because of Wright\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s demands over the land.<\/p>\n

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Unite Wrightbus shop steward Callum Graham said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe survival of Wrightbus is done to one thing and one thing only \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the land which Jeff Wright owns.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe bidders are prepared to open the gates as soon as and get the business up and running. Their valuation of the land and his valuation of it is the sticking point. I hope that common sense will prevail and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll sell it and we can move on.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Workers from the recently saved Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, who spent nine weeks occupying the yard to prevent it being asset stripped after it went into administration, also attended the rally.<\/p>\n

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\"B8159517-85D0-4433-806F-0294AF52EF00\"<\/p>\n

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Workers stick together<\/i><\/b>
\nUnite Harland and Wolff shop steward Joe Passmore told the rally that Wrightbus can be saved if workers stick together.<\/p>\n

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He said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur unity won our fight at Harland and Wolff. We stood together. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve everything to gain by standing as one. What politicians and the likes of Jeff Wright don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like is bad publicity. If you put that bad publicity out there every single day and don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let Wright forget what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done to you, he has to act.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd the likes of Boris Johnson will come under pressure from all those politicians who are very afraid and have seen what the masses are doing and think \u00e2\u20ac\u0098oh now they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still here, it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go away. We hoped this was going to die down.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let it die down, believe in your fight and keep it going and you will win.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner told the rally that Unite will \u00e2\u20ac\u015bleave no stone unturned in the fight to get those gates open\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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Turner said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bJeff Wright is using the land as a bargaining chip with potential quite disgracefully. Our message to Jeff Wright is simple: Give us back the land, open up them gates and put our people back to work.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Hundreds of protesters rallied in front of the Wrightbus factory in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, on Friday (4 October) calling for the firm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1,200 jobs to be saved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[230,219,1238],"wps_subtitle":"Hundreds march to save Wrightbus jobs","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19191"}],"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=19191"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24933,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19191\/revisions\/24933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}