Wright family must do the right thing and ‘hand back the land’ to protect jobs and skills

Regional Secretary Jackie Pollock reiterated his union’s commitment to securing a future for the workforce in light of headline announcements due to be made by the Chancellor Savid Javid at the Conservative party conference later today.

“Unite will stop at nothing to get the gates open, to get our members back to work and to secure a future for jobs and skills in Ballymena.

“The chancellor will today announce a £220 million investment programme in public transport infrastructure – in particular to increase the stock of buses operating across the UK but if the Tories are serious about delivering an ‘infrastructure revolution’ with public transport at its heart, they must move immediately to secure the future of Wrightbus as a cutting edge manufacturer. 

“Failure to do so will expose the promised ‘infrastructure revolution’ as just another empty conference pledge”.

Unite Regional Officer with responsibility for the Wrightbus workforce George Brash called on the Wright family to ‘hand back the land’ to the local community in order to safeguard jobs and skills into the future.

“As a sign of good faith to their workforce and the wider community, we are calling on the Wright family to do the right thing and hand back the land to the people of Ballymena. Such a move offers the best hope to safeguard the workforce jobs and skills and a future for this town.

“Northern Ireland cannot afford to lose 1,200 jobs and a highly-skilled workforce which has the capacity to deliver on their promised infrastructure revolution”, Mr Brash concluded.