Unions threaten strike action at UK process sites
16 Jul 2009
London - The GMB and Unite trade unions are to ballot their members in the engineering construction sector for strike action at power station and oil refinery sites across the UK. The dispute, they claim, is over discrimination, unfair treatment and exploitation of workers in the industry.
The official strike ballot will cover GMB and Unite members working in the building and maintenance of specific power stations and oil refinery sites - BP FPS Grangemouth and Ineos Grangemouth in Scotland, Sellafield, Shell UK Stanlow and Staythorpe RWE in Nottinghamshire and Chevron Pembroke and Aberthaw in Wales.
GMB said it will write to contractors at these sites to give notice of the ballot by 4 Aug. The ballot will run from 11th August 2009 and end on 1 Sept, with any agreed industrial action following shortly after.
According to the GMB, the employers' body, the Engineering Construction Industry Association (ECIA) has rejected union demands for improvements to the National Agreement for the Engineering Construction Industry (NAECI), which would deliver fairness and long term stability to the sector.
The ballot follows months of industrial unrest and unofficial action at sites across the country. The GMB claims this has been due to employers refusing local workers access to apply for work and undercutting the NAECI agreement.
Paul Kenny, GMB General Secretary said, "The anger and frustration felt by both workers and bona fida employers in the engineering construction industry at the miss-use and exploitation of migrant labour has now been boiling over for many months as witnessed on several sites across the country.
A robust and transparent auditing process is the only way of forcing these employers to break from their bad habits. This is not a skills issue, this is not a foreign worker issue, it is about fairness and adhering to agreed standards."
