Wildcat strikes over foreign workers in Britain
Wildcat strikes over foreign workers in Britain
Date: Thursday, February 05, 2009 12:38 AM
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1974 -- 2/04/2009 >>>>>
Striking workers in Britain have had all they stand with salary depression and
losing their jobs because of the importation of cheap foreign workers.
Wildcat strikes are breaking out across the nation. Check out this video to
see some interviews of the strikers:
http://mefeedia.com/entry/itn-latest-story/14132009/
That video was taken at the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant. For those
of you that might not know the significance of nuclear reprocessing
-- they separate uranium, plutonium, and other fission products from spent
nuclear fuel. Plutonium is really handy when you want to make nuclear bombs.
So, Britain is using cheap foreign labor to work at a place that makes the
most dangerous and toxic material known to mankind. Many of their workers are
coming from Italy which is a haven for Muslim immigrants. I hesitate to call
the British government stupid for allowing this to happen but the label really
fits. Of course the U.S. uses H-1Bs from Pakistan to run their nuclear power
plants like Palo Verde so the British don't have a monopoly on stupidity. At
least their unions are doing something to stop the problem!
Common sense would dictate that responsible nation-states would never use
foreign workers at a place like Sellafield -- especially since the track
record at Sellafield isn't exactly spotless when it comes to keeping track of
their plutonium. In 2005 for instance, 30kg of plutonium was declared missing,
which is enough to make seven nuclear bombs. The British government concluded
that the missing plutonium was just a paperwork problem with an audit. Let's
hope they are right!
Sellafield isn't the only nuke in Britain that uses foreign workers, as you
will discover by reading the articles below. There are other places the
strikes are occurring, such as oil refineries and electric generating power
plants.
The statement to the House of Lords by Lord Mandelson was particularly
interesting:
He said it was important to "respect and guarantee" the principle of
free movement, which was an "intrinsic part" of membership of the
European Union.
Hmmmmmm. Where have we heard that globalist term "free movement" before?
For starters try the trade agreements we are bound to such as General
Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and
of course the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Those agreements
are all bound to Mode 4 of GATS which defines the free flow of "natural
persons". This shows that we are much closer to being another EU than most
people would care to believe.
The strikers made an interesting point. They call for transparency of the
hiring process of foreign workers, which many of us in the U.S. have demanded
of our government without success.
One of the strikers, the GMB convener Willie Doggert, said: "All we
want is a level playing field. It's not just about foreign workers.
We need jobs to be advertised with transparency so that everybody
gets a fair crack of the whip at getting them."
RESOURCES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellafield
all about Sellafield
http://www.devsource.com/c/a/Architecture/Programmers-Guild-Pushes-for-H1B-Transparency/
Programmers Guild Pushes for H-1B Transparency
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5640794.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1
Strikes over foreign workers spread to Sellafield as Mandelson ups stakes
Watch video and read article.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/02/sellafield-wildcat-strike
Nuclear power workers join wildcat strike action over foreign labour
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4272691.stm
Missing plutonium 'just on paper'
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5640794.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1
Strikes over foreign workers spread to Sellafield as Mandelson ups stakes Sam
Coates, Chief Political Correspondent Lord Mandelson today raised the stakes
in the row over foreign workers by declaring that "no laws were broken" by the
company which brought over Italian and Portuguese employees.
As a new wave of wildcat strikes hit Britain, the Business Secretary appeared
to pre-empt the findings of Acas, the conciliation service, which has been
asked by government to determine if any laws were broken at the Total refinery
in Lincolnshire.
The Government's stance appears to have inflamed workers at energy and
construction sites around Britain. Amongst the walkouts this morning
include:
- Hundreds of contract workers at Sellafield nuclear site, which the
management said they expected to last a day.
- Around 700 contractors at the Grangemouth oil refinery in central Scotland,
who took unofficial action on Friday, walked out again today.
They also decided they would return to work tomorrow.
- Two hundred workers at Fiddlers Ferry power station in Widnes, Cheshire,
also walked out in support this morning
- The Longannet power station in Scotland was also hit.
- Contract workers at the Heysham nuclear power station in Lancashire and a
site at Staythorpe near Newark in Nottinghamshire also joined the strikes
Speaking on the BBC, Lord Mandelson rebutted union allegations that employment
laws were broken and Portuguese and Italians were being paid less than the
going rate, adding Acas "would confirm" this later today.
The peer also defended the company, saying the contract at the centre of the
dispute was originally awarded to a British firm but it did not fulfil it so
it was given to an Italian company which then drew on its own workforce.
His stance is likely to escalate the row with the unions, who are angry at the
ability of companies to bring in foreign workers for below the union-
negotiated going rate at construction and energy plants around the country.
The row caught national attention on Friday after an unofficial walkout by
workers at the Total's Lindsey refinery in Lincolnshire over the arrival of
the foreign workers which sparked copycat protests across Britain.
Yesterday saw the government in disarray over the issue, with ministers forced
into an embarrassing U-turn yesterday after Alan Johnson, the Health
Secretary, suggested that the Government was preparing to bow to union demands
to push for measures in Europe to protect British jobs.
Unions want a new EU directive to overturn a ruling by the European Court of
Justice in 2007 that made it easier for companies to circumvent pay deals by
hiring foreigners on lower wages by making it harder for unions to strike.
They believe that Gordon Brown could be forced to take action after promising
"British jobs for British workers" in his 2007 Labour conference speech.
Lord Mandelson suggested this morning that Mr Johnson had not been in full
possession of the facts when he did the interview on the Marr programme
yesterday.
At the Total refinery, more than a 1,000 workers agreed to allow union
officials to start talks with management.
Kenny Ward, from Unite, told the crowd: "The fight started here at Lindsey
- the fight against discrimination, the fight against victimisation and the
fight to put bread on your table for your children.
"Gordon Brown said it is indefensible. If the Prime Minister will not defend
working man, if Parliament will not defend the working man, then the union
will defend the working man.
"The people in Europe need to sit up and judges who twist and interpret the
law to the advantage of the employer need to have a rethink.
"The politicians need to sit down and sort this problem out."
The Government is insisting there will be no threat to energy supplies as a
result of the unofficial industrial action.
A spokesman for the Energy Department said: "We re not aware of any current or
potential impact of the unofficial strikes on gas, electricity or fuel
supplies.
"Equally, National Grid advises that gas and electricity supplies should be
adequate to meet demand even in the cold weather this coming week.
"As ever, we continue to monitor the situation carefully."
Officials said the unofficial strikes were by maintenance and construction
contractors, not core permanent staff, so they expected little or no impact on
operations. Sellafield is not a power generation site, and work there is
decommissioning-and reprocessing-related.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/02/sellafield-wildcat-strike
Nuclear power workers join wildcat strike action over foreign labour
Contractors at Sellafield and Heysham stage unofficial walkout More than
1,000 demonstrators hold meeting at Lindsey Gordon Brown calls action
'counter-productive'
James Sturcke and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Monday 2 February 2009 16.09 GMT larger | smaller Article
history The wave of wildcat strike action that has swept across the UK
escalated today as hundreds more workers walked out in the protest against
foreign labour.
Contract workers from the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria, the Heysham
nuclear power station in Lancashire and a site at Staythorpe, in
Nottinghamshire, joined the unofficial action over the hiring of Italian and
Portuguese workers on a Lincolnshire power station project.
Workers from the Longannet power station in Scotland joined those at the
Grangemouth oil refinery, who voted to continue their strike, while 200
employees at Fiddlers Ferry power station in Widnes, Cheshire, also walked out
this morning.
In west Wales, up to 500 contractors at the South Hook LNG gas terminal in
Milford Haven downed tools for a second day. Many of the strikers took part in
a similar protest on Friday. Around 150 contract workers at Aberthaw power
station, in south Wales, also walked out.
Outside the Lindsey oil refinery in Killingholme, Lincolnshire, where the
protests began, more than 1,000 demonstrators gathered for a mass meeting,
voting unanimously to allow union officials to start talks with management.
"Over the last week, your heroic actions here have inspired thousands in our
county, hundreds of thousands in our country, and millions across the globe,"
Kenny Ward, from the Unite union, told the crowd.
"The fight started here at Lindsey: the fight against discrimination, the
fight against victimisation and the fight to put bread on your table for your
children. Gordon Brown said it is indefensible. If the prime minister will not
defend the working man, if parliament will not defend the working man, then
the union will defend the working man."
He said "people in Europe" needed to take note, and judges who interpreted the
law "to the advantage of the employer" needed to have "a rethink".
Gordon Brown said the unofficial strikes sweeping the country were "counter-
productive". Speaking at a joint press conference after talks with the Chinese
prime minister, Wen Jiabao, Brown said his priority was to promote the jobs of
British workers in the face of the current recession.
"I recognise people are concerned about their jobs," he said. The prime
minister insisted the government was doing everything it could to ensure fair
treatment for UK workers.
The business secretary, Lord Mandelson, denied that UK firms and workers faced
discrimination, and called for the unofficial strikes to stop. He said he
understood the concerns of British workers but stressed that Total, which runs
the Lindsey plant, had rebutted claims that UK workers had been excluded from
contracts.
In a statement to the House of Lords this afternoon, Mandelson said it was
important to "respect and guarantee" the principle of free movement, which was
an "intrinsic part" of membership of the European Union. Around 300,000
British companies operated elsewhere in the EU, he said.
"On the Lindsey site, the great majority of the workers are actually British,
so clearly no policy of discrimination or exclusion of British nationals is
being operated at the refinery," he said.
Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, said Mandelson was "in denial
about the nature of the problem" and the Labour party had been aware of the
issue for five years.
"The facts are that the manner in which the EU 1996 Posted Workers Directive
was applied into UK law in 1999 was botched," he said. "The Labour party
recognised this in 2004 and made a manifesto commitment to apply Article 3(8)
properly into UK law. That commitment, which was repeated in 2008, has not
been honoured."
About 600 mechanical contractors met at the Sellafield site's Yottenfews car
park at 7.30am to agree a 24-hour walkout in support of the Lindsey action.
One of the strikers, the GMB convener Willie Doggert, said: "All we want is a
level playing field. It's not just about foreign workers. We need jobs to be
advertised with transparency so that everybody gets a fair crack of the whip
at getting them."
Total said talks would be held today with the conciliation service Acas,
senior union representatives and Jacobs, the main contractor at Lindsey.
"We recognise the concerns of contractors but we must stress that it has never
been, and never will be, the policy of Total to discriminate against British
companies or British workers. We have been a major local employer for 40 years
and the majority of our 500 permanent staff are local," the company said.
It said its #200m investment in the site would help to secure the long-term
future of the refinery and local employment opportunities.
A small group of protesters gathered about 100 yards from the Forest Pines
hotel, near Scunthorpe, where the talks were understood to be taking place.
Police were guarding both entrances to the hotel.
Management at Sellafield said the contractors who walked out this morning had
been building new storage facilities. A Sellafield Ltd spokesman said there
were very few foreign workers employed at the site, and 90% of contractors
were from west Cumbria.
A similar row has been raging at Staythorpe for months and several
demonstrations have been held to protest that UK workers were being overlooked
in favour of foreign staff.
Around 700 contractors at the Grangemouth oil refinery in central Scotland
walked out again today after unofficial action on Friday. They decided they
would return to work tomorrow.
The wildcat action began after the Italian company IREM won a #200m
construction contract and supplied its own permanent workforce. It is
understood 100 Italian and Portuguese workers are already on site and 300 more
are expected in the coming days and weeks.
Moves are under way to set up a panel under an independent chairman to review
the recruitment. Total had put a contract out to tender for the construction
project with five UK firms and two European contractors.
On Friday, up to 3,000 workers from at least 11 oil refineries and power
plants in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland mounted protests and
unofficial strikes over the contract.
Mandelson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that claims that British workers
had been excluded from the disputed contract, or that foreign workers were
being paid less than the going rate, were unfounded. He conceded few people
from Teesside took advantage of work opportunities across Europe, but denied
that he was suggesting Britons should "get on their bike" to look for work.
"No one is forcing anyone to travel. There are other jobs being created in the
UK economy. What is at stake is the opportunity for the movement of people
who, if they wish, can apply for jobs or follow their companies around the
European Union."
The shadow business secretary, Kenneth Clarke, condemned the strikes. "I
understand people being worried about their jobs; I don't think this is the
right way to demonstrate it," he said. "The idea that people think the
reaction to these concerns is to start threatening to close down power
generation at the time of a cold snap is obviously something we all disapprove
of."
A spokesman for the Energy Department said: "We're not aware of any current or
potential impact of the unofficial strikes on gas, electricity or fuel
supplies."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4272691.stm
Missing plutonium 'just on paper'
Almost 30kg of plutonium apparently missing from the Sellafield nuclear plant
is simply an auditing issue, it has been announced.
The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) confirmed 29.6kg of plutonium - enough
to make seven nuclear bombs - was "unaccounted for" in auditing records.
Operator, the British Nuclear Group (BNG), said it was a discrepancy between
physical and book inventories.
UKAEA said there was no reason to think there was any "real loss" of
plutonium.
In a statement it said: "The material unaccounted for (MUF) figures for
2003/04 were all within international standards of expected measurement
accuracies for closing a nuclear material balance at the type of facility
concerned."
But Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Norman Baker said: "If the figures
are wrong then this looks like serious incompetence from an industry that
deals with highly dangerous resources."
'Security measures'
The figures also showed that 16.4kg of naturally-depleted uranium was also
unaccounted for.
Sellafield reprocesses spent fuel and employs more than 10,000 workers at the
site in West Cumbria.
A BNG spokesman said: "There is no evidence to suggest that any of the
apparent losses reported were real losses of nuclear material.
"There is no suggestion that any material has left the site. When you have got
a complicated chemical procedure, quite often material remains in the plant.
"We are extremely confident that the safety and security measures we have here
at the site."
In 2003 BNG revealed 19kg of plutonium was unaccounted for at the plant.
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