Training | 2009.06.20
Oil refinery dispute threatens to spread
Power station staff in sympathy action after Total tells nearly 650 construction workers at Lindsey to reapply for jobs
Hundreds of workers across England and Wales walked out today in support of nearly 650 construction contractors sacked from the Lindsey oil refinery.
The French oil giant Total confirmed it had written to 647 workers on a £200m project at the site, near Immingham, Lincolnshire, saying they had been sacked and had until Monday to reapply for their jobs.
Union leaders condemned the move – which was initially thought to affect as many as 900 staff – and warned the dispute was spreading as workers took sympathy action at up to 17 other power stations as well as construction sites across the UK.
Total said striking Total workers were taking part in an "unofficial, illegal walk-out" and urged workers to reapply for their jobs.
The GMB union general secretary, Paul Kenny, said: "Total has for a full week refused to meet with the unions to resolve this matter through [the industrial conciliation service] Acas. It seems pretty obvious that victimisation is taking place. Laying off the workforce will not solve the problem, it will escalate it."
Activists from Lindsey travelled to sites across the UK today to urge other workers to join the dispute.
"The Scottish lads have gone to Scotland and the Liverpool lads have gone to Liverpool," said Tony Walters, a 63-year-old plater from Lindsey who was one of about 200 workers who had been picketing outside the Eggborough power station in Yorkshire since this morning. "There are people gone everywhere … to picket and ask people to come out."
Activists were also circulating text messages urging other workers to join the dispute. "Cometh the hour, cometh the man," read one sent to hundreds of workers. "If you are supporting our brothers across the country thank you. If you\'re not yet out just remember next time it could be you. We must fight this NOW."
Shop stewards said workers at Fiddlers Ferry in Cheshire, Ratcliffe and Staythorpe in Nottinghamshire, Didcot in Oxfordshire, Aberthaw and South Hook in South Wales, the BP refinery near Hull, and Drax, Ferrybridge and Eggborough in Yorkshire had come out in support of the action.
"We\'ve come to get the support of the lads on Eggborough," said Lionel Cheadle, a mechanical fitter for 37 years who was given a redundancy warning at Lindsey last week. "The management have gone back on all the agreements we made when there was the row about the foreign workers in January. They gave us a guarantee that there\'d be no redundancies while there were still Italians and Portuguese workers on the site. But now we\'ve 51 of us going and the Italians and Portuguese are still there."
The sackings at Lindsey were announced last night as unofficial strike action over 51 job losses on a project to build a hydro desulphurisation plant was about to enter its eighth consecutive day.
The same workers were at the centre of a wave of wildcat action which swept the country in February over the issue of migrant workers taking jobs on UK construction projects in the energy sector.
The two sides had been involved in talks at a local level throughout the day although attempts by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service to kick-start official negotiations appeared to have failed.
Outside the Lindsey site families turned up to support the strikers who have lost a week\'s earnings, in some cases over £500. Christine Moylett, whose 47-year-old husband Kevin is a plater on the £200m desulphurisation plant project, said: "It makes me feel close to tears, not just wondering where the money\'s going to come from, but thinking how little they seem to value the training of men like Kevin. He\'s been in the trade since he was 16, and they taught him really well, as an apprentice and at night school."
Union activists welcomed the talks but warned that unless the company backed down the strikes would spread.
Kenny Ward, a shop steward at Lindsey who helped to lead the February protests, said: "We\'ve been trying long and hard for eight days to get Total and the employers to come to the negotiating table … We\'ve always been up for negotiation and that doesn\'t stop now."
But he said feelings among his colleagues were running high: "For me and for 900 people here the gloves are off. I\'ve never walked away from a fight in my life. Total have to realise what they\'ve unleashed."
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/[...]y-construction-workers-dispute
