{"id":3135,"date":"2015-02-26T11:24:07","date_gmt":"2015-02-26T11:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=3135"},"modified":"2015-02-26T11:24:07","modified_gmt":"2015-02-26T11:24:07","slug":"pooling-people-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=3135","title":{"rendered":"Pooling \u00e2\u20ac\u0098people power\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Community initiative is only two years old, but has already won victories up and down the country.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe latest of these happened on Tuesday (February 24), when Newry council agreed to overturn its decision to dramatically hike swimming pool user fees for the disabled, elderly and unemployed.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe decision comes after a concerted campaign from a local Unite Community branch, which spearheaded protests and galvanised the people of Newry to stand up to the unjust fees.<\/p>\n

 
\nNewry Unite in the Community spokesperson, Martin McKeown, hailed the council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s overturned decision as proof that community solidarity makes a difference.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is a people power victory \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Unite in the Community provided the leadership but this is a victory belonging to the people of Newry who stood up and refused to accept these unfair user fee charges,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite in the Community built up a grassroots campaign against this issue, raising awareness, organising an online petition and then we stepped up the campaign by organising protests outside the leisure facility and the chamber,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 McKeown added, noting that the protests were well-attended by a range of disadvantaged groups which would be affected by the fees.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe council had proposed hiking the new community swimming pool\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s user fees by staggering amounts. Under the proposed scheme, disabled children, previously paying just over \u00c2\u01415, would be asked to pay \u00c2\u0141165 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a 2770 per cent increase. Elderly users, previously paying about \u00c2\u01413, were to pay \u00c2\u014165, and fees for the unemployed were to rise from \u00c2\u014190 to \u00c2\u0141165 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an 83 per cent hike.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite lead community organiser Albert Hewitt explained the aims of Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s community initiative.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bCommunity membership is Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s way of saying we want to work with local communities in this sort of campaign,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Hewitt said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe union seeks to provide campaigners with the resources necessary to successfully demand a fairer society.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe want trade unionism to play a key part in community life – not just helping workers during difficult times, but working together, every day.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nHewitt hailed Newry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s success but said this victory was only the beginning.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure that [Newry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s activists] will go on to build on this victory and challenge more of the brutal austerity policies being implemented by the Stormont parties at a local and regional level,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

 
\nInterested in taking on austerity in solidarity with your local community? Find out more about Unite Community membership here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Community initiative is only two years old, but has already won victories up and down the country.   The latest of these happened on Tuesday (February 24), when Newry council agreed to overturn its decision to dramatically hike swimming pool user fees for the disabled, elderly and unemployed.   The decision comes after a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[27,232],"wps_subtitle":"Unite Community protests force pool fees u-turn ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135"}],"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=3135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3137,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135\/revisions\/3137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}