by Keith Richmond
WORKERS who have been turned down for jobs at the Isle of Grain power station near Rochester in Kent held a demonstration outside the site on Tuesday.
Holding placards saying “Alstom: Give us a chance”, “Who will pay your taxes if we are unemployed” and “Fight for jobs on Alstom sites” the skilled but unemployed construction workers are calling on the company to give British-based labour fair access to work there.
Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite, said: “Unemployed construction workers are demonstrating to demand fairness – not favours. These workers are not going away until they get a fair opportunity to secure work at the site. Alstom has the power to insist that sub-contractors end this scandalous situation. UK-based labour must be given a fair chance to get a cut of the action to build a new generation of UK power stations.”
He added: “No European worker should be barred from applying for a British job and absolutely no British worker should be barred from applying for a British job.”
