by René Lavanchy
THE future of the wildcat strike action at power plants and refineries up and down the length of Britain was hanging in the balance this week, as workers at Lindsey Oil Refinery considered a deal that could see them return to work.
An offer, made by conciliation service ACAS to the unofficial strike committee of workers and lay union members would see 102 out of the 198 construction jobs at Lindsay covered by a national agreement on pay and conditions earmarked for British workers. An officer of the GMB union, which has been advising the strikers, described it as “the sort of deal we were looking for”.
Meanwhile, it was announced that business representatives were poised at the end of this week to commit to giving greater consideration to British workers in awarding contracts. The statement, apparently reached after discussions with employment relations minister Pat McFadden, is to be made on behalf of all 300 companies in the Engineering Construction Industry Association.
As Tribune went to press, it was unclear how strikers around the country would react. Workers at the Staythorpe power plant site in Nottinghamshire, one of the original flashpoints for the national action, had gone home and were not expected to return to the gates of the site until next Tuesday.
Union officials welcomed news of the offers, although they can only advise the strike committees, some of whom they have been advising to return to work.
Steve Syson, a Unite regional officer, said: “If agreement’s been reached, then I’m really pleased, because we need a constructive dialogue with government.”
“The Spanish contractors [at Staythorpe] clearly stated to us that they would not be using UK labour. That’s the nub of the problem.”
Kathleen Walker-Shaw, the GMB’s European officer, told Tribune: “Hopefully we will have a principle when a contract is going out that a contract will not exclude a worker on the basis of their nationality.”
She also expressed doubt as to employers’ assurances that their foreign workers were on the same terms as their UK counterparts: “Why on earth and on what basis would a contractor want to bring in these workers from another place? It makes you ask, on what terms and conditions is it in an employer’s interest to do that?”
Bernard McAuley of Unite, who has been talking to striking workers at Lindsey, agreed: “We want to establish wage transparency. We want the wages to be done by an independent accountant.” the site, owned and operated by Total, for details of the wages, but had received no response, he said.
“We need the facts. It’s no good someone sitting across the table and coming out with statements.”
Anticipating a solution, Unite joint general secretary Derek Simpson told the BBC this week that there was “still a major problem about how these foreign companies, who win contracts and come complete with a workforce, are going to create other difficulties.”
“We need to build in some sort of concept that the jobs that are created by these contracts are open to everyone – to foreign and to UK workers”, he added.
