Brown's 'jobs for Britain' row

More than 1,000 employees downed tools at power plants and oil and gas refineries in
England, Scotland and Wales.

The unofficial walk-outs were triggered by anger over a major construction contract at a Lincolnshire refinery being awarded to an Italian firm that promptly imported Italian and Portuguese people to do the job.

A crowd of hundreds outside the Total oil refinery in Lindsey were told by shop steward Kenny Ward: "I'm a victim, you are a victim, there are thousands in this country that are victims to this discrimination, this victimisation of the British worker."

The plant gave a £200 million deal to Italy's IREM after two British firms lost in the bidding. The Italians said the contract required specialised workers.

Sympathy protests spread with a speed that echoed the fuel protests of 2000, though pickets have so far not tried to stop production.

The uproar was a blow to Gordon Brown, whose pledge of "British jobs for British workers" was denounced by trade union leaders as hollow.

They said the reality was that Britons were suffering "discrimination" and being "victimised" by employers importing foreign labour.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn admitted that the British workers were "entitled to an answer".
Speaking at the Davos economic summit, the Prime Minister said: "I understand people's worries about their jobs and I understand people's anxieties about employment across the country."

But he warned against protectionist policies to save domestic jobs, adding: "There's no solution to this crisis in abandoning globalisation."

Downing Street said the Total contract was awarded "some time ago" when there were labour shortages.

It promised to meet the industry in the next few days "to make sure they are doing all that they can to support the UK economy". But a spokesman was unable to specify anything that the industry was doing wrong.

The protests were a shot in the arm for union leaders, led by the Unite union's Derek Simpson, who said Britons were "barred" from employment at the sites even though their power bills ultimately paid for the plants to run.

"You can understand the moral indignation as well as the industrial concern that people are expected to have skills, but be unemployed and watch foreign workers who have got more privilege because they're not barred from these contracts," he said.

In a statement, Total said it "recognised" the concerns of contract workers but that it had awarded the contract fairly.

Godfrey Bloom, UK Independence Party MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, said: "It defies belief that, with unemployment pushing to the three million mark, we are bringing in foreign workers to do a job that many British firms could tackle."

Shona McIsaac, Labour MP for Cleethorpes in North Lincolnshire, said the importing of foreign labour was "like a red rag to a bull for people in our community who are out of work and who have skills that could be used in this construction project".

About 100 Italian and Portuguese workers are on the Lincolnshire site, with 300 arriving next month. They had their own accommodation blocks in barges in Grimsby docks.

Protesters outside the refinery waved placards reading "Right to Work UK Workers" and "In the wise words of Gordon Brown — UK Jobs for British Workers".

At the giant Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland, hundreds walked out in sympathy. Regional Unite officer Bobby Buirds said: "The argument is not against foreign workers, it's against foreign companies discriminating against British labour."