{"id":8213,"date":"2016-03-23T14:42:18","date_gmt":"2016-03-23T14:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=8213"},"modified":"2016-03-23T15:28:13","modified_gmt":"2016-03-23T15:28:13","slug":"shares-tumble-after-ashleys-own-goal-comment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=8213","title":{"rendered":"Shares tumble after Ashley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0098own goal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Sports Direct billionaire owner Mike Ashely has claimed that the scrutiny of his company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s practices are damaging its sales at the expense of profit.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Shares had already more than halved since August but yesterday tumbled by more than 10 per cent after Ashley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comments.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The shares fell again today (Wednesday 23) after Ashely issued a profit warning to the London Stock Exchange, dropping by more than 4 per cent to 310p by late morning.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMike Ashley has nobody to blame for this situation but himself, not MPs and certainly not Unite for exposing the realities of working for his company,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHe has ignored all the warnings that consumers and investors walk away from companies which fail to tackle abuses in their supply chain and do not treat workers properly,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 added Steve.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Shoppers are feeling uncomfortable with retail staff on zero hours, minimum wage contracts.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNo wonder suppliers are thinking twice about putting premium brands on his shelves. This is what is taking its toll on the share price,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Steve.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite has offered to meet Mike Ashley wherever, whenever to address worker concerns and the abuses at his Shirebrook warehouses as well as in-store.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe opportunity is there for him to end completely unnecessary zero hours abuses in-store and the use of agency labour in his Shirebrook warehouse,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 added Steve.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Over 3,000 agency workers are employed by Sports Direct at Shirebrook through Transline and The Best Connection.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bEnding \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Victorian\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 work practices would re-establish market confidence in the retailer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s corporate governance, give hope to a dedicated, undervalued workforce \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and, crucially, could go a long way to restore customer faith in his products and calm MPs\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 fears that something is well and truly amiss at his business,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Steve.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut if he carries on bulldozing his way to permanently bad PR, customers will vote with their feet. He is putting workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 jobs, as well as investors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 capital at risk by refusing to cooperate with those who simply want a fair deal for working people,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sports Direct billionaire owner Mike Ashely has claimed that the scrutiny of his company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s practices are damaging its sales at the expense of profit. &nbsp; Shares had already more than halved since August but yesterday tumbled by more than 10 per cent after Ashley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comments. &nbsp; The shares fell again today (Wednesday 23) after Ashely [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[388],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8213"}],"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=8213"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8221,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8213\/revisions\/8221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}