Will the wildcat strikes in the energy sector cause a huge blackout in the UK?

| 19-06-2009 | UK Business | Written by Matthew Bennett

Will the wildcat strikes in the energy sector cause a huge blackout in the UK?

That is the question many are asking today in the UK, after the French oil company Total sacked 900 workers at the Lindsay refinery in Lincolnshire for having organised a series of unauthorised wildcat strikes.

Everyone out: and they have until Monday to apply to get their jobs back. No talking to the trade unions, says Total, seen as the strikes were not authorised; clearly the trade unions don’t like this.

The news hasn’t gone down well at all with workers elsewhere in the industry, who have quickly started sending text messages to organise more strikes in other refineries and power stations around the country: “Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Your support is now needed more than ever. If you are supporting our brothers across the country thank you. If you’re not yet out just remember next time it could be you. We must fight this NOW.” (‘Total shutdown’ threat as oil refinery strikes spread – Telegraph)

There are already hundreds of workers who have declared themselves on strike at the Drax refinery in Yorkshire and at the E.ON plant in Nottinghamshire but energy companies say that for the minute, there’s not too much risk of further strikes. (Blackout threat rises as refinery row spreads – The Times)

The Lindsey refinery was the scene of a clash in February over ‘British jobs for British workers’ after they decided to give the jobs to Italian and Portuguese workers. (Refinery row escalates as 900 sacked – Financial Times)

16h25.

The Telegraph has the text of the official statement from Total about the incident: “All current employees of the contractor workforce who wish to work on the project, will be given the opportunity to reapply for positions on the HDS-3 construction project until 5pm on Monday June 22.” There you go then.

16h30.

Bloomberg reports that the British government is washing its hands for the minute. We shall see how long that lasts if there’s a blackout, if this carries on and if the strikers get the ‘British jobs for British workers‘ signs out again.

16h35.

SkyNews is saying that there are now hundreds of sympathy strikers in 17 power stations or refineries. The FT has lowered its estimate of workers sacked from 900 to 647 and has the chariman of GMB Union saying that Total is creating victims and that they want to stir things up. The Times law blog explains the legal options – not many of them – which are open to the workers, with the biggest problem being breach of contract by the workers.

17h00.

The Press Association says that the emergency negotiations convened for today between the workers’ representatives and Total have ended without even having begun.

The Independent’s business editor on his Econoblog, tries to give some historical context to the strikes in the UK, comparing them with the car sector strikes in the sixties, another bad decade for the British economy. He says we should get ready for a ‘nasty decade‘, economically speaking.

19h00.

The Guardian has a photo gallery of today’s wildcat strikes up. They also have an audio interview with some of the strikers in which they say that it does have something to do with foreign workers because Total had committed to not sacking anyone whilst the foreigners were still working at the refinery.

Gergor Gall, a professor of industrial relations, thinks that Total has chosen the ‘nuclear option’ and that things will get worse, because on the one hand the strikers and their sympathisers will defend their rights and on the other because Total and its subcontractors are ‘militant and unflexible‘.

Tracy Corrigan in the Telegraph tells us of the effects of the strikes on English and EU employment law: “The root cause is either Brussels or Gordon Brown or both…The British government has interpreted European law to mean that foreign contract workers can be brought in and paid the minimum wage, rather than sticking to nationally agreed rates.” She asks for a change in the law.