{"id":4140,"date":"2015-05-13T17:12:22","date_gmt":"2015-05-13T16:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=4140"},"modified":"2015-05-13T17:12:22","modified_gmt":"2015-05-13T16:12:22","slug":"strike-for-a-fitting-pay-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=4140","title":{"rendered":"Strike for a &#8216;fitting pay rise&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">A strike comprising 11 one day stoppages commenced at Antrim carpets in Belfast today (May 13) over what workers have dubbed \u00e2\u20ac\u0098poverty pay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Workers laid down tools at 1pm today\u00c2\u00a0for six hours in the first walkout, demanding that management address poverty pay.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Other than those members of staff who have had a pay increase to comply with the national minimum wage, staff have not had a pay increase in seven years and earn 30 per cent below the industry norm. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bManagement are telling workers they cannot afford to pay staff more,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 says Sean Smyth, Unite regional officer.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut our members have had enough and are fed up. Today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s strike has been solid and our members are prepared for further action,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">The staff that are earning above the minimum wage have had seven years of stagnation in their pay packets meaning the value of their wages has reduced in real terms by 18 per cent during this time.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s six-hour stoppage from 1pm to 7pm is the first of a series of strikes for improved pay. They will escalate this to a 24-hour strike every Wednesday for the next\u00c2\u00a010 weeks to force management to deliver a real improvement in pay.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIndustrial action is a last resort but our members cannot go on living on poverty pay. We ask management to take action at even this late stage to address our members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 concerns,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 added Sean.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAntrim carpets have been running for more than 30 years. For management to claim that they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford to give workers a pay rise in seven long years is hard to swallow,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Sean. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite is demanding that management \u00e2\u20ac\u0098open their books\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to workers to allow them to scrutinise the true situation and give our members a fitting pay rise,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00c2\u00a0 A strike comprising 11 one day stoppages commenced at Antrim carpets in Belfast today (May 13) over what workers have dubbed \u00e2\u20ac\u0098poverty pay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. \u00c2\u00a0 Workers laid down tools at 1pm today\u00c2\u00a0for six hours in the first walkout, demanding that management address poverty pay. \u00c2\u00a0 Other than those members of staff who have had a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[88],"wps_subtitle":"Carpet workers say stop pulling wages rug ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140"}],"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=4140"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4148,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140\/revisions\/4148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}