{"id":3080,"date":"2015-02-19T15:43:18","date_gmt":"2015-02-19T15:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=3080"},"modified":"2015-02-20T19:12:08","modified_gmt":"2015-02-20T19:12:08","slug":"rats-tents-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=3080","title":{"rendered":"Rats in tents protest"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Hand in hand with Unite and a giant inflatable rat, workers staged a demonstration at one of Hampshire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s biggest industrial sites, early this morning (February 19).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>With around 40 Unite members, the protest held at the Fawley refinery covered one of the two entrances at 6.30 am \u00e2\u20ac\u201c before workers began to start their shift.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>What were they protesting for, and what was the significance of the rat?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The dispute involves scaffolders and other employees who spend all day working outside, despite the weather conditions England throws at them.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Their working environment is far from ambient. When they go \u00e2\u20ac\u0098inside\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 on their breaks, they eat their meals in rat-infested marquees that suffer from inadequate heating.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The picket-line\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s giant inflatable rat highlighted their plight. But it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop there.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Other concerns include a lack of hot water, toilet blocks and the absence of drying facilities for wet clothes. Workers have said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe heating in the rest rooms are totally inadequate \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the temperature inside is often the same as outside.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite regional officer Malcolm Bonnett said it was a, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bGood turn out this morning; around 40 unite members and our favourite rat!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMembers are protesting over the conditions. Welfare provisions on site are poor, tents are used which have little heating and rats are often seen inside.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Malcolm added that the issues have been raised with the Health and Safety Executive, which is now \u00e2\u20ac\u015bmaking further inquiries\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 into the situation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The site is run by ExxonMobil, an energy company which earns profits of up to $32.6bn.\u00c2\u00a0 The multinational makes millions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but seems unable to provide the most basic of necessities for their workers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hand in hand with Unite and a giant inflatable rat, workers staged a demonstration at one of Hampshire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s biggest industrial sites, early this morning (February 19). &nbsp; With around 40 Unite members, the protest held at the Fawley refinery covered one of the two entrances at 6.30 am \u00e2\u20ac\u201c before workers began to start their [&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":[248],"wps_subtitle":"Workers have had enough of shocking conditions ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3080"}],"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=3080"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3082,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3080\/revisions\/3082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}