Staythorpe workers wildcat... Again.

An investigation was launched by contractor Alstom, under the guidance of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). They announced the conclusions on Wednesday evening, revealing that one of the workers involved had been fired. "The investigation found that one of our subcontractor's employees was potentially at fault and had possibly breached safety procedures. As a result, this employee is no longer working on the site. The other employee in question was not found to be at fault."

This is not the first time issues of health and safety have come up on the site, where a new power station is being built by Alstom on behalf of NPower, at a cost of £800m. In May last year, GMB raised concerns after the lifting cables supporting a 10 tonne pipe snapped. In June, in a similar incident, a 5 tonne steel beam was dropped by crane. Then in August, a man had to be airlifted to hospital, after his legs were crushed in another accident.

The project has suffered from wildcat action before. A long running dispute about the use of foreign contractors bsaw regular protests outside the site from November 2008. In February last year, following a walkout at the Total Oil refinery in Lincolnshire and a wave of solidarity actions across the county, workers at Staythorpe downed tools. The national action compelled the management at Lindsey to back down, but in June they attempted to sack 900 workers who had been involved in the action. This sparked further wildcat action across the country, again including at Staythorpe. Protests about the specific dispute at Staythorpe have continued throughout.

Predictably, Alstom were less then happy about the most recent walkout, telling the Evening Posts, "[W]e were dismayed at the behaviour of employees who walked out on unofficial strike at Staythorpe before the [health and safety] investigation had been completed and its findings confirmed. This was totally unjustified and, we understand, not backed by the unions, who have told their members that they do not support this walkout and urged them to return to work immediately."

After a mass meeting, workers have voted to return to work. Nobody would claim that this is a major victory for the working class and a precursor to global revolution. Nevertheless, it does demonstrate the confidence of many of these workers which they have developed through their previous struggles and the weakness of Thatcherite anti-trade union legislation in the face of concerted wildcat action.