UK Total Lindsey Refinery Talks Planned Thursday; Strikes Continue
June 24 2009 - 7:16AM
Dow Jones News
Talks between employers and striking contract workers will
resume Thursday over the sacking of workers at Total SA (TOT)'s
200,000-barrels-a-day Lindsey oil refinery in eastern England, an
industry body said.
The parties met Tuesday in London without reaching an agreement
but agreed to reconvene Thursday, the National Joint Council for
the Engineering Construction Industry said in a statement posted on
its Web site Tuesday. The council - comprised of both trade union
and employer representatives - administers a national labor
agreement for the U.K.'s engineering construction industry.
Total said last week that its contractors had issued dismissal
notices to workers on a construction project at Lindsey, angering
workers and prompting a wave sympathy strikes and protests. The
contractors offered a Monday deadline for workers to reapply for
their jobs.
Walkouts continued Wednesday at energy facilities across the
U.K., although operations weren't affected.
Thousands of workers went on strike at the following sites:
ConocoPhillips' (COP) 221,000-barrels-a-day Humber refinery, Royal
Dutch Shell PLC's (RDSB.LN) 240,000-barrels-a-day Stanlow refinery,
ScottishPower PLC's (SPI) Cockenzie and Longannet power stations,
Scottish and Southern Energy PLC's (SSE.LN) Fiddler's Ferry and
Ferrybridge power stations, E.ON AG's (EOAN.XE) Ratcliffe-on-Soar
power station, EDF Energy's (EEN.FR) Cottam power station, British
Energy Group PLC's (BGY.LN) Hinkley Point B power station and Ensus
Group's biofuel plant under construction.
At least 8% of contractors, or around 4,000 workers, in the
U.K.'s engineering-construction industry walked out of more than a
dozen sites Tuesday .
Company Web site: http://www.total.com
-By Lananh Nguyen, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)20-7842-9479;
lananh.nguyen@dowjones.com
(Angela Henshall in London contributed to this report.)