GMB warns of more labour unrest

London - More labour unrest at power station developments at Staythorpe, Nottinghamshire and the Isle of Grain, Kent appears likely after the GMB Central Executive Council (CEC) convened a meeting of its officials to consider a response to what it describes as further discrimination against UK workers.

The development comes hot on the heels of the labour dispute at the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire, where perceived discrimination against UK workers was subsequently ruled as within the law by Acas and in accordance with collective agreement on the recruitment of overseas workers

GMB summoned its latest meeting after learning that contractors and subcontractors for engineering and process developments at Staythorpe and the Isle of Grain are seeking planning permission to use an accommodation barge and disused army barracks to house Polish workers being brought into the UK.

Both sites are being managed by main contractor, Alstom, with subcontractors FNN and Mon Presior at Staythorpe and Remak and Zre Katowice at the Isle of Grain.

Alstom told trade unions in January that it plans to use 250 Polish workers employed at Alstom’s own execution centre in Poland to build the next phase of Staythorpe and that it will not be employing any UK workers. Zre, from Katowice, plans to bring in 120 workers from Poland and will house them in the barge and in the barracks.

The CEC agreed to convene a meeting of all GMB shop stewards and officials to consider how best to deal with what it describes as an organised threat to hard-won terms and conditions of employment in the UK construction engineering industry.

Paul Kenny, general secretary at the GMB, said his members had, “been let down by employers like Alstom, by the UK government, by Acas, by the European Commission and the European Court.”

Kenny added that the CEC has made clear that it will sanction an official strike ballot should that be the route the meeting decides to go.