#1 English nuke engineers strike over cheap forgein labor
Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 2:23 pm
Time.UK
[quote]More than 600 engineering contractors working on the Sellafield nuclear site went on strike yesterday in protest at the employment of foreign workers.
Wearing thick anoraks and woolly hats to shield themselves from the raw wind whipping the Cumbrian coast, the contractors gathered just before 8am to murmur support and grudgingly extract hands from pockets to agree to a 24-hour strike.
There were, however, no vigils beside braziers or other demonstrations of militancy. It was too cold to hang around at Sellafield talking of the old days, and the show of hands was followed by a race to nearby cars. The scaffolders, riggers, pipefitters and labourers beeped their horns, losing no time to head home for an early breakfast.
Gary Stockton, a senior shop steward for Unite, said that the workers were striking out of sympathy with colleagues at the Lindsey oil refinery at North Killingholme, Lincolnshire.
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“They [the refinery bosses] have said categorically that there will be no English labour employed on those projects. They are taking work off us by undercutting our national agreement. We have a set rate of pay under the agreement and they seem to be bringing cheap foreign labour in by trying to destroy it. The mechanical construction industry at the moment is at boiling point. We think it is a total and utter disgrace.â€
[quote]More than 600 engineering contractors working on the Sellafield nuclear site went on strike yesterday in protest at the employment of foreign workers.
Wearing thick anoraks and woolly hats to shield themselves from the raw wind whipping the Cumbrian coast, the contractors gathered just before 8am to murmur support and grudgingly extract hands from pockets to agree to a 24-hour strike.
There were, however, no vigils beside braziers or other demonstrations of militancy. It was too cold to hang around at Sellafield talking of the old days, and the show of hands was followed by a race to nearby cars. The scaffolders, riggers, pipefitters and labourers beeped their horns, losing no time to head home for an early breakfast.
Gary Stockton, a senior shop steward for Unite, said that the workers were striking out of sympathy with colleagues at the Lindsey oil refinery at North Killingholme, Lincolnshire.
Related Links
“They [the refinery bosses] have said categorically that there will be no English labour employed on those projects. They are taking work off us by undercutting our national agreement. We have a set rate of pay under the agreement and they seem to be bringing cheap foreign labour in by trying to destroy it. The mechanical construction industry at the moment is at boiling point. We think it is a total and utter disgrace.â€