by René Lavanchy
Lord Mandelson will face a march of unemployed construction workers past his office window next month, as the GMB union demands he admit that engineering firms are deliberately underpaying labour to undercut British workers.
The protest – which will also target the London headquarters of engineering giant Alstom – comes after a report this week revealed that some skilled labourers building the Staythorpe power station in Nottinghamshire were paid 1,300 euros (£1,140) a month below the nationally agreed rate.
The report threatens to re-ignite militancy in the industry after unions and bosses agreed a new national agreement on pay and conditions last year, narrowly avoiding a national strike.
During a strike at Lindsey Oil Refinery in 2009, Lord Mandelson reassured peers that all workers there were being paid in accordance with the agreement.
GMB regional organiser Andy Fletcher told Tribune: “Now there’s irrefutable evidence that the contractor is underpaying, we want Lord Mandelson to restate his position.”
“There’s a lot of tension in the industry. With this confirmation, a lot of people are quite understandably angry.” Workers at Staythorpe staged a wildcat strike on Tuesday over an unrelated dispute.
The underpayment was revealed after an independent audit of Somi, an Italian construction firm employed as a subcontractor by Alstom at the Staythorpe site. As a member of the Engineering Construction Industry Association, Alstom is bound by the national pay agreement.
The GMB is calling for Alstom to be expelled from the ECIA and for Somi to lose its British contracts as a result.
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We’ve had proof of underpayments to foreign nationals on several occasions in the last decade and nothing was resolved.If anything the situation has worsened.
The construction workser will see labour wage control when the tories return.
No minimum wage and more unemployment.