{"id":19888,"date":"2020-01-27T17:31:38","date_gmt":"2020-01-27T17:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=19888"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:54:33","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:54:33","slug":"crankshaft-workers-end-tether","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=19888","title":{"rendered":"Crankshaft workers at ‘end of their tether’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The supply chains of Ford, Peugeot and JLR could be hit in a dispute over low pay at\u00c2\u00a0Darcast Crankshafts Ltd in Birmingham said today (January 27).<\/p>\n

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The entire shop floor workforce at the factory, which produces crankshafts for major automakers and made profits of more than \u00c2\u01412 million in 2018\/19, will be balloted for strike action this week over low pay.<\/p>\n

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Unite, which has more than 70 members at the factory, said workers \u00e2\u20ac\u0098are at the end of their tether\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 at being paid a basic rate of \u00c2\u01416.16 an hour that is topped up to the legal minimum through the use of shift allowances and so called \u00e2\u20ac\u0098bonuses\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

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Despite staff\u00c2\u00a0on occasion\u00c2\u00a0having to work up to 70 hour weeks in arduous conditions at the factory\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s metal foundry to get by, Darcast has refused the workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 request to increase their basic hourly rate to the national minimum wage (NMW) of \u00c2\u01418.21.<\/p>\n

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Unite slammed Darcast\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s use of \u00e2\u20ac\u0098bogus bonuses\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to give the impression it is possible for staff to earn a reasonable living on their current pay scheme.<\/p>\n

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The union also criticised a\u00c2\u00a0threat by\u00c2\u00a0Darcast owner Leonard Bransby to close the factory permanently if the workers do not back down.<\/p>\n

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Unite regional officer Melvyn Palmer said:\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members are at the end of their tether \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they work in heavy industry and are being paid poverty wages. Their work\/life balance is being severely affected with many having to work 60 or 70 hour weeks in gruelling conditions just to get by.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bDarcast\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bogus bonuses are simply an underhand way of keeping staff working long hours and ensuring the firm complies with the NMW.\u00c2\u00a0Our members are dead set on righting this wrong and gaining a fair pay rise and are unconcerned about Leonard Bransby\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s preposterous threat to close the entire operation if they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give in.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFord, Peugeot and JLR will not be pleased to hear of a potential disruption to their supply chains because Darcast is paying poverty wages. Darcast know how hard the employees\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 jobs are and it is time the company\u00c2\u00a0stopped treating workers\u00c2\u00a0with such disdain and disrespect. Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s door is always open and we urge Darcast to table a pay increase and put an end to this dispute.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The supply chains of Ford, Peugeot and JLR could be hit in a dispute over low pay at\u00c2\u00a0Darcast Crankshafts Ltd in Birmingham said today (January 27).   The entire shop floor workforce at the factory, which produces crankshafts for major automakers and made profits of more than \u00c2\u01412 million in 2018\/19, will be balloted for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19889,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[230,674,212,861],"wps_subtitle":"Low pay dispute at\u00c2\u00a0crankshaft factory\u00c2\u00a0could hit Ford,\u00c2\u00a0Peugeot and JLR supply chains","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19888"}],"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=19888"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24744,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19888\/revisions\/24744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}