Teesside workers join wildcat strikes

Jan 31 2009 by Karen Dent, The Journal

UP TO 300 workers at the Wilton refinery on Teesside joined a wildcat strike yesterday in support of widespread protests over the use of foreign contractors.

The workers picketed the site near Redcar yesterday morning in support of colleagues at the Total Lindsey refinery at South Killingholme, in north Lincolnshire. The protest, which police described as peaceful, took place from 6.30am until mid morning at the four gates around the refinery.

Sembcorp Industries, which runs the 2,000-acre Wilton International site, was worried the action could affect output and ultimately employment. A spokesman said: “Site companies would be very concerned if the protest was to be prolonged as it could impact on operational activities.

“In the current economic climate this would not help any of the site businesses and could ultimately impact on jobs.”

The action on Teesside was followed by protests in Scotland and South Wales. Around 700 mechanical contractors, who work for BP and INEOS at Grangemouth, walked out following a union meeting.

A protest involving 50 people was also staged at Aberthaw power station near Barry in South Wales and there were reports of demonstrations at liquefied natural gas terminals in Pembrokeshire.

The workers were backing strikers in Lincolnshire who walked out over the decision to bring in hundreds of Italian and Portuguese contractors to work on a new £200m plant at the giant Lindsey oil refinery at North Killingholme. Around 1,000 protesters gathered in a car park opposite the refinery.

Kevin Rowan, regional secretary of the Northern TUC, said he understood workers’ fears for their jobs but believed they were focusing on the wrong target.

“They are certainly right to protects about their insecure employment but pointing the finger at migrant and foreign workers is scapegoating people who really have nothing to do with this.

“It’s completely wrong to blame migrant and foreign workers for the job losses were are seeing. The downturn is global not just in the UK.

“Attention should be focused on tackling the problems on a global scale. It all stems back to the credit crunch and the bad practice of some people in the financial system.”

But Unite union officials at the Lincolnshire protest said there were enough unemployed local people to fill the jobs.

The union’s regional officer Bernard McAuley said: “There’s sufficient unemployed skilled labour wanting the right to work on that site and they are demanding the right to work on that site.

“Our general secretary of Unite and the GMB have called upon the Prime Minister to call an urgent meeting with the heads of industry in the engineering and construction industry to clients and the trade unions to get round the table.

“We want fairness. We want the rights of our members to have the opportunity to be employed.”