Unions step up power station protests

UNIONS protesting against British workers being excluded from construction jobs on a power station project intend to take their campaign to Westminster and the equality watchdog.

by Tribune Web Editor
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

by René Lavanchy

UNIONS protesting against British workers being excluded from construction jobs on a power station project intend to take their campaign to Westminster and the equality watchdog.

Unite and the GMB say that talks with subcontractors who are hiring labour to build the Staythorpe power station in Nottingham have broken down, and that the companies are determined to bring in workers from abroad.

But a GMB official said the decision was probably unlawful, while Unite is planning on complaining to the Equality and Human Rights Commission that the decision is discriminatory.

Around 300 unemployed workers protested this week outside the Staythorpe site, which Unite estimates could provide 850 construction and engineering jobs.

Tom Hardacre, Unite’s national officer for construction, said: “I don’t believe they will now speak to us about the issue. Our intentions are to continue with what we’re doing and seek a political solution.

“At this moment in time, in engineering and construction there’s quite a lot of work, but  we’ve been denied that through the importation of non-UK labour.”

Engineering giant Alstom has been contracted by RWE npower to build the plant, and is using two foreign subcontractors, FMM and Montpressa. Since the project is covered by a national pay agreement, rates of pay are fixed irrespective of the workers used.

Meanwhile, companies building the Grain power station in Kent, another Alstom project, have told unions they will allow local workers to apply, following initial reports that they too would be excluded.

GMB regional organiser Brian Skipper said: “They’ve given us assurances that they will look at properly qualified people that apply for a position. We’re monitoring the situation.”

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About The Author

  • Robert

    New Labour Tory ways, no long can Labour shout remember Thatcher because they can shout back Remember brown, No more boom and bust and now look at it Jobs for the boys back home and British contractors are kicked out with a New Labour government. makes you wonder how the hell we voted these idiots in. BNP must be laughing all the way to the ballot box.

  • Robert

    New Labour Tory ways, no long can Labour shout remember Thatcher because they can shout back Remember brown, No more boom and bust and now look at it Jobs for the boys back home and British contractors are kicked out with a New Labour government. makes you wonder how the hell we voted these idiots in. BNP must be laughing all the way to the ballot box.

  • http://www.derekclarkmep.co.uk Derek Clark MEP

    The Office of DEREK CLARK MEP, UKIP, East Midlands Rowan House,23 Billing Road,Northampton, NN1 5AT. Ph: 01604 620064 Fax: 01604 636002 Email: mep_eastmids@hotmail.com

    23rd January 2009
    The Editor

    Dear Sir

    Of course the French firm building a new power station at Staythorpe will use a workforce drawn from Europe, not locally.

    It isn’t that EU rules allow companies to do this, they want companies to do it, they even use a legal device to force it through. Over the last two years firms in several EU countries have brought in workers from outside and used a collective agreement to pay them less than a local work force.

    In each case that flew in the face of those countries’ national minimum wage but the ECJ (European Court of Justice) upheld these wage-busting agreements. So it is now an open field for any company that does not care.

    Newark and Farndon, for example, are barely 3 miles away so people there looking for work are being shut out. So much for the “social Europe” I keep hearing about in the Employment Committee.

    Derek Clark MEP UKIP East Midlands
    The Office of DEREK CLARK MEP, UKIP, East Midlands Rowan House,23 Billing Road,Northampton, NN1 5AT. Ph: 01604 620064 Fax: 01604 636002 Email: mep_eastmids@hotmail.com

  • http://www.derekclarkmep.co.uk Derek Clark MEP

    The Office of DEREK CLARK MEP, UKIP, East Midlands Rowan House,23 Billing Road,Northampton, NN1 5AT. Ph: 01604 620064 Fax: 01604 636002 Email: mep_eastmids@hotmail.com

    23rd January 2009
    The Editor

    Dear Sir

    Of course the French firm building a new power station at Staythorpe will use a workforce drawn from Europe, not locally.

    It isn’t that EU rules allow companies to do this, they want companies to do it, they even use a legal device to force it through. Over the last two years firms in several EU countries have brought in workers from outside and used a collective agreement to pay them less than a local work force.

    In each case that flew in the face of those countries’ national minimum wage but the ECJ (European Court of Justice) upheld these wage-busting agreements. So it is now an open field for any company that does not care.

    Newark and Farndon, for example, are barely 3 miles away so people there looking for work are being shut out. So much for the “social Europe” I keep hearing about in the Employment Committee.

    Derek Clark MEP UKIP East Midlands
    The Office of DEREK CLARK MEP, UKIP, East Midlands Rowan House,23 Billing Road,Northampton, NN1 5AT. Ph: 01604 620064 Fax: 01604 636002 Email: mep_eastmids@hotmail.com

  • http://renelavanchy.wordpress.com/2009/01/30/what-the-wildcat-strikes-tell-us/ What the wildcat strikes tell us « René Lavanchy’s Blog

    [...] play for. Recently I spoke to Tom Hardacre, Unite’s national officer for construction, for a Tribune article on just this very issue: UK workers being denied construction jobs on projects run by foreign [...]

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