Workers walk out at Staythorpe
Working Class Hero | 08.02.2009 15:36 | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements
Construction workers at the site of a new gas fired power station at Staythorpe near Newark, Nottinghamshire have joined workers across the country in striking against the use of foreign contractors. The issue has been contentious for some time, with unemployed workers holding protests outside the site since November. The issue was reignited after workers at the Total oil refinery at Lindsey in Lincolnshire walked out over similar concerns.
On Monday, all 300 British workers at the site walked out for several hours. They returned to work on Tue 3rd Feb, but within an hour, around 60 staged an unofficial walkout in solidarity with others in the construction industry across the country. A ballot held amongst those who had walked out showed a majority in support of staying out on Wednesday, which they duly did. A protest also took place outside the London offices of contractor Alstom on Thursday 5th.
National Feature Victory for wildcat strikers
Newswire: Staythorpe Power Station Demonstration | Staythorpe walkout | Oil and Power strikes: News, Resources and analysis | Wildcat strikes in Newark | Today's wildcat strikes in the UK oil and now nuke business | Wildcat strikes - an open letter to the anarchist/anti-authoritarian movement
Alstom has been contracted by RWE to build a gas fired power station near Newark. Two companies, Montpressa and FMM, have been subcontracted to carry out construction work on the site. The Unite union alleges, "These two non-UK contracting companies say they have no intention of employing any UK labour to undertake the work." The union "estimates that 600 jobs will be needed to build the power station's turbine and boiler (Montpressa will fit the turbine and FMM will fit the boiler). A further 250 workers will be required to build the pipe connecting the two." Under the current arrangements, they contend that none of these jobs will go to UK workers.
Unite joint general secretary, Derek Simpson, has stated, "Staythorpe is a national scandal. We are seeing thousands of jobs being lost daily but at Staythorpe there is skilled, well-paid work available. It's a disgrace that local workers with years of experience are being locked out of the job." Many of the workers there clearly agree with him.
It is noteworthy, however, that despite Unite's prominent role in campaigning around this issue, the walkout itself has taken place without the support of the union bureaucracy. A clear violation of the Thatcherite anti-union laws (supplemented by legislation introduced under New Labour) the Staythorpe walkout, like others around the country, is unquestionably illegal. The wildcat actions, which appear to have been broadly successful in the instance of the Lindsey refinery dispute, demonstrate how these laws can be surmounted and point towards a potential strategy for working class struggle in this country.
Some commentators have expressed concern about the slogan "British jobs for British workers" which the various wildcat strikes have taken up, echoing Prime Minister Gordon Brown. They fear that this campaign turns British workers against foreign labour and may be fertile recruitment territory for the BNP. In Plymouth, however, strikers have been joined by Polish workers. Indeed, one visitor to Staythorpe, noted the absence of placards bearing the "British workers..." slogans and reported an emphatic rejection of the BNP.
Working Class Hero
Comments
Hide the following comment
Hundreds march at new power stations over foreign labour
12.02.2009 01:20
* Martin Wainwright and Alan Travis
* The Guardian, Thursday 12 February 2009
Construction workers renewed pressure on the government over foreign labour contracts yesterday, mounting brief blockades of two new power stations at dawn.
The protests came as unemployment figures showed foreign-born workers in Britain bucked the downward trend last year, with a further 214,000 finding jobs.
The rise, to 3.8 million, contrasted with a fall of 278,000 in the employment of UK-born workers to 25.6 million. But the foreign-born category includes people who came to Britain as children and are only now entering the workforce after leaving school or university, and does not signal a sudden rush of migrant workers.
Yesterday's protests included a march on a job centre in Newark, Nottinghamshire, where unemployed local people say they have lost out to Spanish and Polish workers on 850 jobs. A small number of engineers at the nearby Staythorpe site, where an advanced gas turbine power station is being built, walked out in support in spite of disciplinary warnings. Approximately 300 local demonstrators were joined by 200 outside supporters, including veterans of last week's successful action at Total's Lindsey refinery on the Humber estuary.
Carrying flags and placards in freezing temperatures, men on the picket line said a deal like that agreed with Total - which gave local workers half of 220 jobs once earmarked for Italians - was their aim.
Saville Wells, 64, said: "We've no objection to foreign lads coming to work here but we should have been given a fair chance. Instead, they brought in their own people as a package.
"It was a done deal. It's threatening the system that's worked well for everybody for the 47 years I've been in the trade. These demonstrations are peaceful. We want to persuade them, to win the argument that way."
Younger protesters said that they were starting to think that the industry had no future, with "package deals" involving complete imported workforces spreading by the week. Adam Hughes, 26, from Wrexham, said: "I did four years' apprenticeship to become a pipeworker but I can see that I may have to change my job. This is happening all over. There's a big power station due down at Pembroke, but they've started building hostel foundations there. Will that be for British workers? I don't think so."
A second demonstration of about 70 protesters gathered before dawn outside a second power station building site at the Isle of Grain, in Kent. Like Staythorpe, the project is being run by the French firm Alstom, which strongly denies discriminating against British workers.
Guardian