Unite for
Jobs chemicals, pharmaceuticals, process and textiles workers
The UK’s Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Process and Textile
Industries have emerged as some of the worst affected areas of our
economy.
These industries are major contributors to the UK economy. The
Unite membership now extends across production, engineering and
maintenance, supervisory, scientific, administration, marketing and
sales and management grades.
With turnover in excess of £50 billion the Chemicals sector is
one of the UK’s largest manufacturing industries. The
pharmaceutical industry is the biggest sector investor in R&D
in the UK, accounting for around 24 per cent of total
investment by business.
Over the past few months pay freezes, short-time working,
redundancies and full site closures have been announced across the
Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Process and Textile Industries.
- Croda has announced the closure of its Bromborough site.
- Hanson Building Products including Castle Cement have announced
537 redundancies across 40 locations, including the complete
closure of 2 locations
- Pfizer, the manufacturing site at Sandwich will cease
production, affecting approx 900 jobs.
- There is a crisis at the huge (former ICI) site at WILTON after
the announcement of closure of INVISTA (former Dupont) textiles. Up
to 5000 jobs could be lost at this multi-employer site.
- Major scale redundancies have been announced by GlaxoSmithKline
(circa 600jobs), Astrazeneca (700 jobs), Unilever (382 jobs), this
list is just a snapshot of what is happening across the
sector.
- Pay freezes have been announced at: Rhodia, Unilever, OI Glass,
Crown Paints, Hanson building Products, again this list is not
exhaustive.
The Chemicals, Pharmaceutical, Process and Textile industries
are major employers of the high skilled, decently paid jobs that
the UK will need in the future if we are to compete globally in the
21st century global economy.
Unfortunately, without support from the UK Government now, these
jobs are at risk and so will be the opportunity to build upon a
great manufacturing heritage, to ensure these high skilled, high
valued jobs are there for future generations.
Unite members in the Chemicals, Pharmaceutical, Process and
Textile industries are urged to support this campaign. Please play
your part in winning action to protect this country’s skills base
and the jobs of generations to come.
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