{"id":4128,"date":"2015-05-12T16:44:24","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T15:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=4128"},"modified":"2015-05-12T16:44:24","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T15:44:24","slug":"safeguard-our-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=4128","title":{"rendered":"Safeguard our jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>At the Irish policy conference of Unite, held in Croke Park yesterday (May 12), Ireland deputy regional secretary Jackie Pollock called for action to safeguard jobs in the manufacturing sector.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn the last year, the manufacturing sector in Northern Ireland has suffered a number of large-scale jobs losses,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said, noting that the region lost 850 jobs in JTI in Ballymena, more than 550 in Bombardier-Shorts, 140 in FG Wilson and 100 in Howden.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd these are just the headline losses,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Pollock added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nShe argued that manufacturing was under attack in North Ireland, caused by relentless outsourcing to low-cost economic competitors.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bProtections against redundancy in the UK and Ireland are among the weakest in Europe,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Pollock noted. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is resulting in Northern Ireland being viewed as the easy option for job losses by multinationals, by comparison to other EU countries where they employ workers. It is essential that the Northern Ireland Executive addresses this problem and intervenes to protect workers from the race-to-the-bottom on workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pay.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nPollock called for a robust manufacturing strategy, one that \u00e2\u20ac\u015blooks where we are at and where we need to go.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nShe made the case for an interventionist strategy that identifies areas needing investments, as well as obstacles impeding growth along with remedies and responses.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nPollock argued that the manufacturing strategy must \u00e2\u20ac\u015bfacilitate growth in powerful industries like pharmaceuticals, precision-engineering and aeronautics.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOnly with a strong industrial base, rooted in a strong infrastructure, can we build a better future, Pollock concluded. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe need to build on solid foundations; a robust productive base provides that.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere are no short-cuts but we need to take the first steps now before we lose even more of these vital jobs. We must ensure that real steps are taken to safeguard the future of manufacturing in our society.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the Irish policy conference of Unite, held in Croke Park yesterday (May 12), Ireland deputy regional secretary Jackie Pollock called for action to safeguard jobs in the manufacturing sector. &nbsp; \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn the last year, the manufacturing sector in Northern Ireland has suffered a number of large-scale jobs losses,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said, noting that the region [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[55],"wps_subtitle":"Robust NI manufacturing strategy call ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4128"}],"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=4128"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4129,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4128\/revisions\/4129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}