{"id":23537,"date":"2020-09-09T14:21:20","date_gmt":"2020-09-09T13:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=23537"},"modified":"2020-09-09T14:21:21","modified_gmt":"2020-09-09T13:21:21","slug":"covid-smokescreen-used-to-slash-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=23537","title":{"rendered":"Covid smokescreen used to slash pay"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Unite has launched an international campaign today (September 9) to stop the\u00c2\u00a0owners of the Manchester bus company Go North West from using Covid-19 as cover for\u00c2\u00a0making savage cuts to bus drivers’ pay and conditions, while victimising and gagging a Unite union representative.<\/p>\n

Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey has written to Go Ahead Group’s CEO\u00c2\u00a0David Brown to warn him that Unite will be using all available resources to\u00c2\u00a0provide\u00c2\u00a0“immediate assistance to our members”.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn addition to industrial action this will mean exposing your company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0behaviour\u00c2\u00a0to all of your stakeholders, partners and associates\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said McCluskey.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis will include mobilising all of our allies and contacting our significant political network in the Nordic countries, Germany and Australasia.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

Despite continuing to make millions in profits, Go North West’s parent company,\u00c2\u00a0Go-Ahead\u00c2\u00a0is trying to use Covid-19 as cover\u00c2\u00a0to make savage cuts to bus drivers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pay, terms and conditions in Manchester.<\/p>\n

Fire and rehire <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The company is intending to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 the entire workforce to get what they want and then \u00e2\u20ac\u0098rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 those that agree to accept inferior contracts. At the same time\u00c2\u00a0management is\u00c2\u00a0trying to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098gag\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and sack Colin, a union rep who refused to agree the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s demands.<\/p>\n

Unite is calling on the company to stop \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, stop the bullying and stop the cuts and enter into constructive negotiations with the drivers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 union Unite. The drivers are currently being consulted on industrial action.<\/p>\n

The company is demanding that drivers accept cuts to\u00c2\u00a0terms and conditions, including changes to their scheduling agreement that will cost each driver \u00c2\u01413,500 per year on average, an unpaid increase in working hours and slashing sick pay arrangements.<\/p>\n

But\u00c2\u00a0Go\u00c2\u00a0Ahead PLC is a profitable company.\u00c2\u00a0The company\u00c2\u00a0expects its overall operating profit for the year ending June 27 2020 to be between \u00c2\u014163m to \u00c2\u014175m. There is no need to cut the pay and conditions of workers. This is being done out of greed – purely to increase profit.<\/p>\n

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

After refusing to sign away the terms and conditions of his members, union rep Colin, is being threatened with the sack on trumped up charges. As the only union rep not \u00e2\u20ac\u0098furloughed\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, Colin was singled out and repeatedly, bullied by senior managers who wanted him to agree cuts without talking to his members. As part of Colin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s suspension notice the company included a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098gagging order\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, banning him from speaking to anyone who worked for Go\u00c2\u00a0Ahead including family members.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bDespite continuing to make millions in profits, Go\u00c2\u00a0head\u00c2\u00a0are trying to use COVID\u00c2\u00a019 to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 their drivers and make savage cuts to pay, terms and conditions in Manchester,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 commented Unite executive officer, Sharon Graham said.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe company has\u00c2\u00a0targeted, bullied and victimised\u00c2\u00a0our union rep to try to bulldoze through its plans.\u00c2\u00a0This is the tip of the iceberg. If Go Ahead get away with this in Manchester they will try and roll-out \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 elsewhere. Unite will not allow bad employers to use Covid-19 to attack their workforce.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bGo North West’s managing director\u00c2\u00a0Nigel Featham has put the company on course\u00c2\u00a0for an\u00c2\u00a0unnecessary conflict.\u00c2\u00a0His\u00c2\u00a0actions\u00c2\u00a0could lead to lasting\u00c2\u00a0damage to\u00c2\u00a0the reputation of Go\u00c2\u00a0Ahead both throughout this country and overseas.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur message to the company is fair and simple – drop the disciplinary action against our union representative, drop your \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 threat and get around the negotiating table.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Unite will not let profitable firms like Go\u00c2\u00a0Ahead use the pandemic as cover for cuts.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

By Ciaran Naidoo <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite has launched an international campaign today (September 9) to stop the\u00c2\u00a0owners of the Manchester bus company Go North West from using Covid-19 as cover for\u00c2\u00a0making savage cuts to bus drivers’ pay and conditions, while victimising and gagging a Unite union representative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1308,1214],"tags":[176,1295,609,1332],"wps_subtitle":"Unite says Go Ahead Group\u00c2\u00a0has to stop slashing pay and conditions","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23537"}],"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=23537"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23541,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23537\/revisions\/23541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}