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Nuclear plants shut by mass strikes over foreign workers
Joe Murphy and Dick Murray2 Feb 2009
Two nuclear plants were hit by wildcat strikes today as the foreign workers row escalated.
Nine hundred contract workers walked out at Sellafield in Cumbria and Heysham nuclear facility in Lancashire. Management said radioactive waste was safe but ministers were alarmed by disruption at such sensitive sites.
Another 200 employees downed tools at Fiddlers Ferry power station in Widnes, Cheshire, and manual workers did the same for 24 hours at Grangemouth oil refinery and power stations in Longannet and Staythorpe. Unions in Scotland were holding mass meetings with a total of about 2,500 workers.
Despite blizzard conditions, 300 workers gathered outside Total's Lindsey refinery in Lincolnshire where the dispute began when a £200 million construction contract was handed to an Italian firm, IREM, which then imported Italian and Portuguese workers. Gordon Brown today appeared to accept that British workers may have been discriminated against by some firms though he warned that strikes against foreign workers would be "counter-productive".
He said talks had been held with Total and other companies to ensure that they allowed British workers to apply for work on all contracts, as required by EU law. Other companies would make clear they were sticking to the rules.
"When that becomes clear, then people will see that there is to be no discrimination in the future against British workers," the Prime Minister said.
There were signs today that Labour MPs were unhappy with the Government handling of the issue. Ex-minister Peter Hain said it was "gold plating" EU laws and should "stand up for the rights of British workers".
Lord Mandelson denied that contractors were bringing in cheap labour and discriminating against skilled British workers. He said these claims had been "very strongly refuted by the company" and his "initial examination suggests the company are right". The arbitration service Acas is to investigate.
Pressed about the allegations of discrimination on BBC radio, Lord Mandelson said: "Stop feeding this xenophobia." He added that a British firm was originally given the contract at Lindsey but failed to fulfil it.
GMB union boss Paul Kenny said: "Peter Mandelson is in denial about the nature of the problem that has given rise to the dispute. Overseas companies are refusing to employ UK nationals on projects in the UK. That is not right."
Reader views (15)
In order to understand the situation you must look to the future of the French building and commissioning the UK required nuclear power stations. They could/would bring in all foreign tradesmen, technicians, engineers together with commissioning and operating staff who could then remain and operate the plants. Perhaps what people feel they are seeing now is just the start of the demise of the requirement of UK workers on large engineering projects in the UK.
- Barry Redgrave, Portsmouth, England, 02/02/2009 21:51
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to all those left wing luvvies... would you be happy if a large barge from Italy sailed up the Thames with 1500 or so Italians on board, to take over all the maintenance jobs in London on the London Underground? No? Thought not. Roll on Election Time - we will see who has the public vote - and it won't be the usual 3 parties
- Gary, amersham, 02/02/2009 19:45
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The strikers have shown why British workers are not being employed for time critical contracts
- Seabee, London UK, 02/02/2009 19:32
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So Far, So Good! now lets dump the wretched Eu.
- Vince London, West London, 02/02/2009 18:48
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The use of EU wokers is ok, the commonwelth was built with such workers, Its only unfair if they are paid slave labour rates,they should be paid the same rates as there UK counter-parts. This would even things up.
- Keith Duncan, London, 02/02/2009 17:03
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The british missed out against many european partners. In france workers from other european countries are not discriminated against ,its just that for each post you need recognised qualifications . This applies to all levels , from waiters , to fishmerchants , to teachers. Hence workers from european countries move to the Uk where they can get a job in any industry they like with no qualifications. Britain should have seen coming.
- Terry, Hennebont , France, 02/02/2009 15:52
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Lord Mandlieson of Mendacity, the Archenemy of Democracy, unelected and unaccountable Business Secretary to the McBroon dictatorship, has just spoken in the Lords and reaffirmed that EUromonster rules on immigration and free movement of EU workers MUST be obeyed.
So, in a nutshell; no "British jobs for British workers". This is confirmed as yet another vacuous soundbite.
If we remain in the EU this country will cease to exist, that is the reality.
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster, 02/02/2009 15:43
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Down with Brown, Down with Mandleson, power to the people, Brown was never elected by the people, lets deliver a blow to Labour they will remenber forever, we need a General Election right now before things get even worse,
- Charles Martel, Liverpool, 02/02/2009 15:39
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The sooner this 'I'm all right Jack' brigade is replaced by foreign workers the better the UK economy will be.
- Charles Smyth, Belfast, Northern Ireland., 02/02/2009 15:02
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Stop the lot,we need a national strike to make are government take notice.The government are only concerned with business and making profits and attracting multinational companies and creating cheap labour to feed them.
- Kev, London-UK, 02/02/2009 14:46
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Lord Mandelson seems to be unable to grasp the situation. The British workers were
never given the chance to apply for the work. This is not a level playing field!!
- Bob, London, 02/02/2009 14:36
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I think Danny London has it right , and maybe it could be someone elected by us!
- David, Stisted UK, 02/02/2009 14:35
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I look forward to all the Premier League footballers coming out in sympathy
- Austen, London, 02/02/2009 14:01
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I'd like to propose that we make a symbolic effort to dispel this xenophobia..... by replacing Mandelson with anyone from anywhere ASAP.
- Danny, London, 02/02/2009 13:11
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When do the car wash people go on strike then?
- Fly, london, 02/02/2009 12:16
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