{"id":7397,"date":"2016-01-21T14:53:43","date_gmt":"2016-01-21T14:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7397"},"modified":"2016-01-21T15:06:01","modified_gmt":"2016-01-21T15:06:01","slug":"dont-hold-our-jobs-to-ransom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7397","title":{"rendered":"Don’t hold our jobs to ‘ransom’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ballymena, Co Antrim and Hollywood. Worlds apart you might think. But such is the threat to jobs and the community that Ballymena-born award winning actor Liam Neeson has joined with Unite to fight for the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very future.<\/p>\n

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Neeson believes nothing short of the future of Northern Ireland is at stake. His support comes in the wake of a series of major employment blows for the town. At risk are key manufacturing jobs including at Michelin and JTI Gallaher.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite is organising the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Rally for a Future\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 campaign launched by workers at the Michelin and JTI-Gallaher plants. This is about everyone coming together and uniting to demand a better future facing huge levels of job losses,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 explained Unite regional secretary Jimmy Kelly.<\/p>\n

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Liam Neeson said it\u00c2\u00a0was \u00e2\u20ac\u015btragic\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 that the Michelin factory will close, with 2,000 jobs going \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and hundreds more to be lost when JTI Gallaher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s closes for good next year.<\/p>\n

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The Taken<\/em> star, a freeman of the borough, has pledged his support to the February 6 rally and Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fight for the community\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s future.<\/p>\n

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In an email to Unite, he says, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI wholeheartedly support the Unite union\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Rally for a Future\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUrgent action needs to be taken by the government to focus attention on the devastating loss of employment in our area.<\/p>\n

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Skilled workforces<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have one of the finest, conscientious, hard-working, skilled and educated work forces in all of the United Kingdom: not to mention one of the most cultured.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAttention must be paid! Ballymena and Northern Ireland must be made more attractive to potential international employers.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey would be lucky to have such an infrastructure and powerhouse of able and willing workers.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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He concluded with a plea for unity and action, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite, people, elected ministers and political leaders: UNITE!\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kelly thanked Neeson for his \u00e2\u20ac\u015bongoing and steadfast\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 support for the workforce in Ballymena and urged people to get behind the campaign.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gaining momentum<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

He added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe campaign is gaining momentum as more and more people express their support \u00e2\u20ac\u201c already the campaign is being raised in the corridors and chambers of power. We hope that our political leaders are listening.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are calling for workers and the wider community to come together to demonstrate their support at the Ballymena bandstand at noon on Saturday, February 6.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe demand focused and continued efforts to attract manufacturing jobs and investment to Ballymena and ensure a prosperous future for all\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, added Kelly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stay tuned to UNITElive<\/em> for more on the Ballymena rally and campaign as it develops.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ballymena, Co Antrim and Hollywood. Worlds apart you might think. But such is the threat to jobs and the community that Ballymena-born award winning actor Liam Neeson has joined with Unite to fight for the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very future.   Neeson believes nothing short of the future of Northern Ireland is at stake. His support comes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[126,219,439],"wps_subtitle":"'Taken' star Neeson joins Unite jobs fight ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7397"}],"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=7397"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7403,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7397\/revisions\/7403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}