Fresh wildcat strikes will break out across power station building sites if employers thwart a national strike ballot over undercutting of British workers, the GMB union warned this week.
The warning comes as Unite and the GMB announced they would ballot workers for strike action, after talks on revising the national agreement for engineering construction workers broke down. A nationwide strike could see up to 50,000 workers walking out on a scale bigger than the strikes at Lindsey Oil Refinery and other sites earlier this year.
National secretary Phil Davies told Tribune that organising a ballot across all sites would be prone to legal challenge. He said: “If we’re challenged, there’ll still be industrial action, but the unions won’t control it.”
The two unions are demanding the right to “pre-audit” contractors to ensure that they can pay the national rate. They also want to assess whether non-UK workers have the skills for the job, which they say British workers are already checked on. Employers offered concessions but refused both demands. Requests for a pay rise next year, on top of a 5.5 per cent rise this year, were also rejected.
Mr Davies, who chaired the meeting, said: “The biggest issue is pre-audits so we can check companies before they come on site. Are they complying with tax and insurance? We want to see decent companies coming in.”
The Engineering Construction Industry Association said it was “perplexed” by the ballot threat and has offered to meet unions next month.
