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Sparks
protest across the country
17 November
A brief round up of protests across the country on the 16
November
Liverpool
Around thirty electricians demonstrated outside one of Spei
Mathew Hall’s sites in Liverpool this week over their attack on the JIB
agreement. The protest began at 6.30am and protesters were joined by around
twenty electricians working on the site who are outraged at the actions of the
companies involved in the attack on their national agreement.
The electricians on this site were adamant that the employers
must not be allowed to get away with their plans to de-skill and cut the rate
for the job and were fully behind the official action being called for the 7
December. The Unite officer for construction told NSSN supporters that there was
a meeting with the employers early next week but one of the workers was adamant
that officials should not meet the employers until they lift their threat to the
JIB.
West Burton
All 1000
contractors at West Burton power station in North Notts struck on Wednesday
16th. They were supporting action that hit sites across the country. GMB pickets
spoke to Jon Dale:
The
employers have said there will be no pay talks until 2013, which would mean no
pay rise until 2014. With rising prices, that’s equivalent to a 20% pay cut.
There’s no
recession in this industry. In fact, there’s a massive amount of work, mostly on
power stations. After privatisation of the electricity industry in the 1980s,
the new owners took huge profits and did not carry out necessary planned
maintenance on power stations.
Now the
plants are aging. West Burton and others were built about 40 years ago. Like old
cars, they need lots of work just to keep going.
Half the
power stations need replacing. There has to be ten times as much work in the
next twenty years as in the last twenty. Otherwise the lights will go out!
The
private owners have also stopped training, so there’s a shortage of skilled
workers, who are getting older. They did away with apprentices for a long time.
They used to pinch skilled workers from steel, mining, railways and other
industries, but these sources have dried up. They’ve tried to bring in foreign
workers but that’s also caused them problems.
We’ve no
problem with foreign workers so long as they get the same pay as us.
The
contracting companies say they can’t pay a rise because EDF, who own West
Burton, and the other corporations owning the power stations, won’t pay more.
This strike will be followed by another 1-day strike in a month. After that,
there will have to be more action if the bosses expect workers to join the race
to the bottom.
Corus Steel plant, Redcar
More than 200 workers, including scaffolders,
joined electricians to picket out the plant. A heavy police presence caused some
tension but the protest passed off peacefully.
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