{"id":28267,"date":"2021-03-30T12:39:08","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T11:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=28267"},"modified":"2021-03-30T16:04:08","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T15:04:08","slug":"profits-over-livelihoods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=28267","title":{"rendered":"Profits over livelihoods"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Brexit trade barriers or naked corporate greed are to blame for job losses in Co. Antrim amid a sinking job market and during a global pandemic fears Unite.<\/p>\n<p>Expanded polystyrene manufacturer Springvale EPS Ltd, a subsection of the hugely successful Kingspan group, announced the closure of its plant outside of Ballyclare in Co. Antrim as they transfer investment to Republic of Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>Unite had driven ongoing consultation in attempted to save jobs at the profitable site. Regional Officer, Kevin McAdam challenged the company and the wider group on their decision, which will throw almost two dozen workers into unemployment in the middle of a pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bConsultations between Unite and management have reached the end without any movement from the company,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said McAdam.<\/p>\n<p>We have tried to persuade the company to continue with the County Antrim plant but it appears they are keener to\u00c2\u00a0concentrate their business in their plant in Askeaton in County Limerick,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n<p>The decision to close comes at the same time that parent company Kingspan announced the purchase of a leading insulation company in Denmark for Euro 253 million last week.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Maximise profits<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bClearly the decision to close the Ballyclare site is driven by the desire to maximise profits over the livelihoods of workers who have helped build the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s success,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Sad McAdam.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members are left baffled by the fact their site is still making money for the group yet they are intent on closing it,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Corporate greed<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIs it a case of naked corporate greed and that bosses feel they can make more elsewhere and to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098hell with the workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 or is this the latest example of economic fallout from damaging the new trade barriers post-Brexit,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said MacAdam.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn either case, workers who have given a lifetime to build up the success of this site are being pushed onto dole queues in the middle of a global pandemic,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Compiled by Jody Whitehill<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brexit trade barriers or naked corporate greed are to blame for job losses in Co. Antrim amid a sinking job market and during a global pandemic fears Unite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24066,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[486,1295,126,219],"wps_subtitle":"Kingspan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Springvale EPS site at Ballyclare, Antrim to close with loss of 23 jobs","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28267"}],"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=28267"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28269,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28267\/revisions\/28269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}