{"id":2441,"date":"2014-12-10T17:14:39","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T17:14:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=2441"},"modified":"2014-12-10T17:14:39","modified_gmt":"2014-12-10T17:14:39","slug":"defence-strike-day-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=2441","title":{"rendered":"Defence strike \u00e2\u20ac\u201c day three"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Over 800 of Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s members in the Defence Support Group (DSG) launched their third day of strike action today (December 10), with seven more days to go, in its historic dispute over pay, as well as concerns about its imminent private sell-off.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nDSG maintains, overhauls, and repairs military equipment for the Ministry of Defence. The current 10-day action is the longest strike in the group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s history, and follows six days of industrial action in October and November.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nDSG workers are striking after unequivocally rejecting the one per cent pay rise they had been offered. This was the last straw after having faced real-terms pay cuts between 12 and 18 per cent, just as the organisation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s accounts have swelled.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nMore than just pay, however, Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 800 workers have voiced extreme concern about the group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s planned sell-off in 2015 to private company Babcock Land.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFeelings among our members are running high not just because of the insulting pay offer, but because of the uncertain future they face of being sold off to the private sector,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite national officer Mike McCartney. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bManagement need to get back around the table to avoid the sell-off being derailed.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nIn a letter to DSG, the MoD and Backbock Land, Unite criticised a potential \u00e2\u20ac\u015bpay system that only serves to demotivate employees and breed discontent.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nUnite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s members urged the interested parties to \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdo the right thing and give the workforce the pay it deserves,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and went on to warn that \u00e2\u20ac\u015bhaving decided on our course of action, we are determined to see the job through.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nPublic sector union PCS involved in the strike pledged its support of Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s members in their fight for fair pay.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n&#8220;We fully support the action being taken by Unite members and are working with Unite and other sister unions to put pressure on the MoD to make an improved pay offer to DSG members,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 a PCS spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n&#8220;If this does not happen we will be asking PCS members to take industrial action in coordination with Unite,&#8221; he added.<br \/>\nWant to support DSG\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s striking workers, too? Send them a personal message of encouragement at DSGStrike@yahoo.com and tweet using the hashtag #DSG.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over 800 of Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s members in the Defence Support Group (DSG) launched their third day of strike action today (December 10), with seven more days to go, in its historic dispute over pay, as well as concerns about its imminent private sell-off. &nbsp; DSG maintains, overhauls, and repairs military equipment for the Ministry of Defence. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[144,156,132],"wps_subtitle":"Members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 fight goes on ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2441"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2442,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441\/revisions\/2442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}