Locked-out construction workers take the fight to BP

15 April

Locked-out BP Saltend workers took their fight straight to the company's fat cats at BP's AGM in London Docklands' Excell Centre yesterday. Shareholders big and small had to face workers from GMB and Unite from the Hull site, although behind a line of hired bouncers!

The police and security had been caught out when a group of the workers had broken away from the main protest outside the building and managed to get inside the Excell Centre to continue the protest there.

They told the shareholders that the consortium who run the Saltend site, with BP in a leading role has locked them out for over a month. This is because they want to break the national NAECI agreement and pick and choose who remains on the job.

As a result 430 workers haven't been paid for weeks. However, they've responded with a heroic campaign of defiance, resulting in solidarity action from other sites and the site being shutdown for a over a week.

Talks have been going on to try and resolve the dispute but the Saltend workers are adamant that this must include these workers having a guarantee that they get their jobs back.