Worker demonstrations at Staythorpe Power Station

London - Unemployed construction workers, being refused work at Staythorpe power station including workers from Scotland, continued their protests at the power station  on 28 Jan.

Alstom has been contracted by RWE to build a gas fired power station near Newark. Two companies, Montpressa and FMM, have been subcontracted to carry out construction work on the site. These two non-UK contracting companies say they have no intention of employing any UK labour to undertake the work, said a statement rom the Unite trade union.

Unite has branded the decision a "national scandal" adding that 600 jobs will be needed to build the power station's turbine and boiler - Montpressa will fit the turbine and FMM will fit the boiler. A further 250 workers will be required to build the pipe connecting the two. None of these jobs will go to UK workers.

Unite, the union organising the demonstrations, has warned that the protests will spread to other power stations under construction in the UK. Many employers in the energy sector are refusing to consider local labour despite the credit crunch, and instead, use non-UK labour to carry out the work.

FMM told union officials that because they had no direct employees themselves, they would supply their workers directly from abroad and would not be giving any consideration to local construction workers with years of experience of building power stations throughout the Trent Valley.

Unite joint general secretary, Derek Simpson, said: ³Our members are not asking for special favours - they are demanding fair play. The UK needs to upgrade and build new power stations and there are huge opportunities to create thousands of well paid and highly skilled jobs. It will be a disgrace if UK workers are not even allowed to apply for jobs to build British power stations. Unite will not stand by and allow our members to languish on the dole while there is work in the UK."

According to Unite, the UK government has invested billions of pounds into the economy to support jobs during this recession. This strategy, it added, depends on employers playing their part. Apart from the Olympics, engineering construction is the only sector of the construction industry with a visible workload going forward. Staythorpe, although the most prominent, is not the only site where employers are refusing to employ local workers.

Alstom has been contracted by Eon to build a gas-fired power station near Grain in Kent. Unite sought assurances that Alstom would provide a level playing field for UK workers during the process for sub-contracting. The union pressed Alstom to include a clause in the tendering process so that any sub contractor would endeavour to use UK or local labour. Alstom refused and then appointed a non-UK construction company, Remak, to build the boiler.

The union said that it has been informed that Remak will not use any UK labour.