Scots power workers walk out in show of support for sacked strikers

Published on Tuesday 23 June 2009 22:51

CONTRACT workers at two of Scotland's main power stations walked out of work yesterday in sympathy with sacked colleagues at the Lindsey oil refinery in England.

Some staff at Cockenzie power station in East Lothian and at Longannet in Fife joined the unofficial wildcat strike, which saw 4,000 workers down tools in protest at job losses at the North Lincolnshire refinery.

They joined workers at the Coryton oil refinery in Essex, Aberthaw in South Wales, Sellafield in Cumbria and Didcot in Oxfordshire in refusing to work yesterday.

ScottishPower stressed that the Scottish walk-out affected only a "small" number of contract workers and that power supplies remained unaffected.

By last night, crucial talks had started in a bid to resolve the dispute at the Lindsey plant.

Union leaders said they would be demanding the reinstatement of 647 workers who were sacked after staging industrial action.

Officials said they also wanted guarantees that workers who have taken part in sympathy strikes at power stations and oil and gas terminals across the country would not be victimised, as well as moves to find jobs for 51 contract staff at the centre of the row. The 51 were laid off earlier this month at the same time as another employer on the Lindsey site was hiring staff.

Phil Davies, national officer of the GMB, said: "I have a clear mandate that we want all 647 workers reinstated, the 51 redundancies taken off the table and an assurance that there will be no intimidation or victimisation of the activists."

Thousands of workers took part in a huge demonstration outside the Lindsey oil terminal. One demonstrator was dressed as the grim reaper, holding a placard which said: "Grim News, 647 workers sacked."

GMB general secretary Paul Kenny was cheered and applauded when he announced the union had launched a 100,000 hardship fund to support strikers. "As far as we are concerned, they are victimised and locked-out people, and it is an official dispute from the moment those notices arrived," he said.

Mr Kenny said the GMB was pressing ahead with a national ballot of thousands of workers in the industry in a long-running dispute over jobs and conditions first announced earlier this month.

Total, the owner of the Lindsey refinery, urged the two sides to resume talks, adding that the action had left a construction project at Lindsey six months behind schedule and around 85 million over budget.

Further cost overruns would "jeopardise the future viability of this important inward investment into the UK", the firm said, adding: "Total is actively encouraging talks to be opened between its contractors and the unions about how to facilitate the return to work of its contracting companies' former workforces. These discussions between the unions and the contracting companies should focus on getting the project back up and running within the agreed timeframe and budget.

"The contracting companies have assured Total they remain committed to the national agreement between themselves and the unions. There is no question of a reduction in pay or dilution of terms and conditions."

A deadline of 5pm yesterday was set for the sacked workers to reapply for their jobs, but Total said it would be the end of the week before the number of contract staff wanting to return to work would be known.