{"id":4333,"date":"2015-06-02T11:13:56","date_gmt":"2015-06-02T10:13:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=4333"},"modified":"2015-06-02T11:25:36","modified_gmt":"2015-06-02T10:25:36","slug":"no-to-poverty-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=4333","title":{"rendered":"No to poverty pay"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #000000;\">\n<p>Unite members at EM News Distribution are set to commence strike action for improved pay tomorrow (June 3) after an overwhelming ballot in favour of industrial action.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Workers will stage a five-hour stoppage across shifts at the highly profitable NI news and magazine distributor. The action is likely to result in significant disruption to newspaper and magazine distribution across Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Speaking ahead of his entry to negotiations in the Labour Relations Agency later on today, Unite regional officer Sean Smyth called on management to adopt a more conciliatory approach.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe EM News Distribution employees we represent are paid little more than the minimum wage for skilled activities,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Smyth noted.\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bManagement failure to address the issue of poverty pay\u00c2\u00a0has resulted in a very strong endorsement of strike action\u00c2\u00a0at\u00c2\u00a0the ballot.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Smyth condemned the way in which management, instead of engaging in serious negotiations, have responded with a threat to lock out workers if they take strike action.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Smyth argued, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bhas only strengthened the workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 resolve to secure fair pay and increased the likelihood of action escalating after tomorrow.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Smyth went on to say that members are hoping to avoid strike action as it is likely to have a highly disruptive impact on the distribution of newspapers and magazines across Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe remain confident that this strike action can be avoided if this highly profitable company addresses the issue of poverty-pay within its workforce.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Strike action was endorsed by 93 per cent of workers in ballot with 91 per cent turnout \u00e2\u20ac\u201c well above the Conservative government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s planned ballot thresholds in <a href=\"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/and-so-it-begins\/\">their latest bid to curtail workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unite members at EM News Distribution are set to commence strike action for improved pay tomorrow (June 3) after an overwhelming ballot in favour of industrial action. &nbsp; &nbsp; Workers will stage a five-hour stoppage across shifts at the highly profitable NI news and magazine distributor. The action is likely to result in significant disruption [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4334,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[219,132],"wps_subtitle":"Strike looms at NI news distribution firm ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4333"}],"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=4333"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4337,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4333\/revisions\/4337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}