3rd UPDATE:Around 4000 Contractors Walkout At UK Energy Sites
June 23 2009 - 8:28AM
Dow Jones News
Unofficial strike action swept across the U.K Tuesday where more
than 4,000 contract workers downed tools at energy plants in
support of sacked workers at Total SA's (TOT) 200,000-barrels-a-day
Lindsey oil refinery.
At least 8% of contractors, or 4,000 workers, in the U.K.'s
engineering construction industry are now on strike at more than a
dozen sites across the country. However, the number of strikers is
likely to be even higher because some companies haven't reported
the extent of the walkouts at their facilities.
Talks between the Lindsey contractors and unions have started in
London over how to facilitate the return of contract workers to a
construction project at Lindsey. Total said it is "actively
encouraging" the talks.
However, a spokeswoman for conciliation agency ACAS confirmed
there will be no official joint talks taking place through them
today.
Spokesman for the union Unite Ciaran Naidoo said negotiations
will review a working practice agreement signed by both parties
through the Engineering and Construction Industry Association.
"At the top of the agenda is obviously the reinstatement of the
workers who have lost their jobs at Lindsey as soon as possible,"
Naidoo said.
Total said delays, under-performance and low productivity at the
project have already cost in the region of an additional EUR100
million.
Friday, Total fired 647 contract workers at Lindsey following
unofficial industrial action, and offered a deadline of Monday
afternoon to contractors to reapply for their jobs. Total said it
will be the end of the week before its contractors can say how many
workers will return to work.
"There is no question of a reduction in pay or dilution of
existing terms and conditions," it said in its statement
Tuesday.
Around 4,000 workers extended unofficial strikes in sympathy
with the Lindsey contractors Tuesday, although operations weren't
affected at any of the sites where walkouts were reported.
These protesters included 900 workers at the Sellafield nuclear
power station who joined the action Tuesday but are expected to
return to work Wednesday.
Other facilities affected by strikes Tuesday included:
ConocoPhillips' (COP) 221,000-barrels-a-day Humber refinery, Royal
Dutch Shell PLC's (RDSB.LN) 240,000-barrels-a-day Stanlow refinery,
RWE AG's (RWE.XE) Aberthaw and Didcot A power stations, Drax Group
PLC's (DRX.LN) Drax power station, the U.K.'s largest coal-fired
power plant, the Dragon liquefied natural gas terminal in Wales, BP
PLC's (BP) Saltend chemical plant and at Ensus Group's biofuel
plant under construction on Teesside.
"Unless action is taken fast to resolve this dispute, deadlock
will continue, sympathy strikes will escalate and the U.K.'s energy
supply will be under serious threat," said Graham Botwright,
managing partner at industrial relations consultancy The Gap
Partnership.
Botwright said progressive talks will only gain ground if a new
third-party arbiter is appointed, or even a new lead negotiator for
each side. "Industrial action should always be the last resort.
Once industrial action has been employed, the collective bodies
lose much of their bargaining power," he said.
-By Angela Henshall, Dow Jones Newswires; (4420) 7842 9285;
angela.henshall@dowjones.com (James Herron and Lananh Nguyen
contributed to this story.)