{"id":28700,"date":"2021-04-29T13:18:04","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T12:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=28700"},"modified":"2021-04-29T13:18:07","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T12:18:07","slug":"coffee-workers-terms-row-may-day-demo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=28700","title":{"rendered":"Coffee workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 terms row May Day demo"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Workers at JDE (Jacobs Douwe Egberts) in Banbury are ramping up pressure in the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 dispute with a protest on Saturday (May 1), followed up with a 24 hour strike on May 8 and 9.<\/p>\n

Unite has already announced that a continuous overtime ban will start on May 1 because of the decision by the Dutch-owned company to issue notice of dismissal and engagement for 291 employees. More strikes are on the cards for June.<\/p>\n

Unite has already announced that a continuous overtime ban will start on May 1 because of the decision by the Dutch-owned company to issue notice of dismissal and engagement for 291 employees. More strikes are on the cards for June.<\/p>\n

Increased pressure on the highly profitable firm comes as Unite launched a national campaign this week to end the ‘bully boy’\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 tactics being used by a growing number of unscrupulous employers across the UK.<\/p>\n

The JDE bosses are currently embroiled in a row that they are banning summer holidays for workers in a bid to thwart industrial action \u00e2\u20ac\u201c already the site relies on overtime to keep production running smoothly.<\/p>\n

The company also faces allegations that it used inducements of \u00c2\u0141750 to some workers so they would accept lower pay and inferior employment conditions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c these claims have been referred by Unite to the conciliation service Acas.<\/p>\n

Unite said that the company is trying to intimidate its members into signing contracts through aggressive one-to-one interviews and some workers, male and female, have been reduced to tears by bullying bosses.<\/p>\n

The union has also notified the Health and Safety Executive over allegations that the company is preparing to use unskilled labour for work on ammonia pipes and boilers as part of contingency plans to undermine the forthcoming industrial action.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are ratcheting up the pressure on the management by holding this Covid-secure protest on Saturday and also staging a 24 hour strike in the first week of May\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 explained Unite national officer Joe Clarke.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Real anger\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere is real anger amongst our members and in the Oxfordshire community about the dogmatic and hardline attitude of the local management that could be a body blow to the regional economy.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are not going to allow our hardworking members at this very profitable company to be steamrollered into accepting lower pay and inferior conditions, especially as they have worked flat-out during the pandemic to meet the soaring demand for coffee from UK consumers.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be giving into bully boy tactics, more reminiscent of the 1930s, that have seen some of our members reduced to tears following aggressive one-to-one interviews to get them to accept these new contracts.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf these contracts are allowed to be introduced, the substantial cut in pay could mean some of our members losing their homes as they will no longer be able to afford their mortgage or rent payments. Such a scenario would be a disgrace.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnless the management enters into a constructive dialogue with Unite, mounting industrial action during the summer will hit the production of top coffee products, such as Tassimo, Kenco and L\u00e2\u20ac\u2122OR Coffee,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Clarke concluded.<\/p>\n

Unite has repeatedly raised the alarm over an outbreak of \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 disputes across the UK as unscrupulous employers look to exploit workers using Covid-19 as an excuse.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFire and rehire is ripping through our workplaces like a disease.\u00c2\u00a0Weak law lets\u00c2\u00a0bad bosses force through brutal changes to contracts, sometimes\u00c2\u00a0taking thousands of pounds off wages that families need to get by,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite general secretary Len McCluskey.<\/p>\n

“It’s a disgraceful\u00c2\u00a0practice that’s outlawed in much of Europe and should be here.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite is fighting for UK workers to be treated with the same decency.\u00c2\u00a0 We won’t stop until the law is changed to protect working people from attack,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

DEMO\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The demo, following strict Covid-19 protocols, will be held outside JDE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Ruscote Avenue site, Banbury OX16 2QU from 10.30 on Saturday. The 24 hour strike will be held between 07:00 on Saturday 8 May and 07.00 on Sunday 9 May.<\/p>\n

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

Workers at JDE (Jacobs Douwe Egberts) in Banbury are ramping up pressure in the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 dispute with a protest on Saturday (May 1), followed up with a 24 hour strike on May 8 and 9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13411,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[489,1625,731],"wps_subtitle":"JDE workers whip up pressure in \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 row with May 1 demo and strike action to follow","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28700"}],"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=28700"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28705,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28700\/revisions\/28705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}