{"id":8806,"date":"2016-05-20T16:27:01","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T15:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=8806"},"modified":"2016-05-23T16:15:45","modified_gmt":"2016-05-23T15:15:45","slug":"economic-vandalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=8806","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Economic vandalism&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>40 workers at Shepton Mallet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s historic cider mill will be clocking off for the last time today (May 20) as Irish drinks company C&amp;C Group presses ahead with plans to close the profitable site, in a move which has been described as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098economic vandalism\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 by Unite.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The redundancies, the first affecting the 120-strong workforce because of the closure, spells the beginning of the end to over 240 years of cider making on the site and comes just days after C&amp;C Group revealed that the Shepton Mallet mill had contributed 10.5m euros to the group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 103m euro profit for the year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Many of the workers have worked at the mill all their working life and face an uncertain future in an area with limited opportunities for similar employment as C&amp;C Group moves production and fermentation of Somerset ciders, Dry Blackthorn, Natch and Olde English to Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bToday marks the beginning of the end for this historic site which has been the beating heart of Shepton Mallet and cider making in Somerset for centuries,&#8221; said Unite regional coordinating officer Steve Preddy.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWorkers, many with 40 years experience, are devastated at the running down of the site and its ultimate closure,&#8221; he added. &#8220;Some have put all their working life into making popular ciders like Dry Blackthorn and Olde English.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey have hit every target given to them and made a profit for the owners C&amp;C Group and feel a deep sense of betrayal by the firm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quest to squeeze ever more profit from its sites.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn England\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cider shires of Somerset, Devon, Hereford and Gloucester companies are investing in their mills, their brands and employees for the futures,&#8221; Preddy went on to say. &#8220;Yet C&amp;C Group is turning its back on a viable and profitable site in what can only be termed as short sighted economic vandalism.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe would urge any interested buyer of the site to come forward before cider making at this historic and profitable mill runs totally dry.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>40 workers at Shepton Mallet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s historic cider mill will be clocking off for the last time today (May 20) as Irish drinks company C&amp;C Group presses ahead with plans to close the profitable site, in a move which has been described as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098economic vandalism\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 by Unite. &nbsp; The redundancies, the first affecting the 120-strong workforce [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[487,489],"wps_subtitle":"Beginning of the end for historic cider mill","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8806"}],"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=8806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8807,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8806\/revisions\/8807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}