The UK has a Nationwide Strike!

[Big Orange]

Oh dear:

British strikes widen over foreign laborers
By JON SUPER

Associated Press Writer= IMMINGHAM, England (AP) — Hundreds more British power plant workers went on strike Monday in a widening labor campaign over the use of overseas workers to build an oil refinery in this northeastern town.

Workers from several nuclear and coal-fired power plants staged walkouts, following the lead of thousands of workers at about a dozen sites who went on strike Friday.

The strikes at plants throughout England, Scotland and Wales were launched to show support for workers at an oil refinery in Immingham, where workers are upset over the decision by Italian construction company IREM SpA to use Italian and Portuguese workers for a 200 million-pound ($280 million) project at a Total refinery.

Britain is in a recession; layoffs are an everyday occurrence; and the unemployment recently climbed to 6.1 percent.

Several hundred protesters turned out near the construction site in this coastal town on a snowy Monday morning. Many of the bundled-up protesters held signs that read, "British jobs for British workers."

The slogan is a dig at Prime Minister Gordon Brown who used the line himself during a 2007 speech about making the British work force more competitive in the global economy.

The government's business secretary, Peter Mandelson, said there appeared to be no truth to union claims that British workers had been excluded from the contract for the construction project and that foreign workers were being paid less than the going rate. Mandelson said an independent arbitration process under way should be able to answer that with certainty soon.

Mandelson told Parliament that European Union rules allowing workers from the 27-nation bloc in Britain were better than a retreat to economic protectionism.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the power-plant strikes were "counterproductive."

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Associated Press Writer Nancy Zuckerbrod contributed to this story.

Protectionism over the trade of products and resources is ill advised, but as I said before Total Oil shipping in many foreign workers and shutting them in on boats, while totally excluding local workers is in very bad taste in this employment climate, and I'm not surprised of the negative backlash.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Protectionism over the trade of products and resources is ill advised, but as I said before Total Oil shipping in many foreign workers and shutting them in on boats, while totally excluding local workers is in very bad taste in this employment climate, and I'm not surprised of the negative backlash.

I don't know the situation in the UK, but I don't think it's a whole lot different than it is here in the US. There just hasn't been much outcry over it, yet. Because of the shape of the economy, businesses need to be especially stingy about employment, which often means that they hire the immigrant workers who are more willing to work for less money. Even here in DC I've noticed a dramatic increase. In the past month I don't think I've been to one restaurant, for example, where I was served by somebody who didn't either speak with a thick accent or barely spoke English at all. Unfortunately, this means that what little money there is circulating through the system isn't going to American workers (disclaimer: I realize it may be a bit shallow to judge these people as immigrant workers just because they have an accent, and I realize that it more than likely they are legal immigrants and, thus, de facto Americans, I am just illustrating a point).

[Big Orange]

We've got enough immigration from the Commenwealth, the EU economic immigration from 2004 to 2008 was ridiculous and was a pretext for UK businesses to put the clock back 80 years on employees' wages, conditions, and housing by cramming in foreign labour, while displacing and alienating the native population. And Gordon Brown typically made things worse with his infamous "British jobs for British workers" line which was bound to be universally adopted by racist mouth breathers and desperate native workers alike.

[Jade Falcon]

We've got enough immigration from the Commenwealth, the EU economic immigration from 2004 to 2008 was ridiculous and was a pretext for UK businesses to put the clock back 80 years on employees' wages, conditions, and housing by cramming in foreign labour, while displacing and alienating the native population. And Gordon Brown typically made things worse with his infamous "British jobs for British workers" line which was bound to be universally adopted by racist mouth breathers and desperate native workers alike.

Brown has now apparently stated what he meant by that was training for skills so that British workers could get British jobs. Which begs the question as to how many times you can do that. When a lot of the heavy industries either collapsed or moved abroad one of the big things was light industry, a lot of the time computer related. Now in Scotland in the immediate area that I know of, there have been closures of IBM at Greenock, Motorola at either East Kilbride or Cumbernauld, Fullarton Fabrications, SCI, Compaq, Conner Peripherals etc. Granted, these weren't all at once, but over a period of some years. The next big thing was call centres. A lot of them were moved abroad though recent adverts for insurance companies and the like now seem to be emphasising UK based call centres. I know I slammed the phone down when on a foreign call centre for Sky because I was asked for my Post Code and I repeated it slowly 8 times and the person said she didn't understand me, and I had severe trouble understanding her.

However, the point is, just how many times can you keep retraining a work force, and for what jobs exactly?

[Big Orange]

I don't feel too harshly about being subjected to economic migration, since many Brits are working abroad anyway and will likely be the only option left for many workers still in the UK after the phony service economy gets crushed by the Depression, but skilled workers were leaving yeas before since a service economy is hostile to practical skills if big box corporations shifting so much manufacturing abroad (even chocolate). Britain has allegedly got less manufacturing than Italy.

[Dartzap]

Beeb

Foreign labour row 'deal reached'

Unions will recommend workers at Lindsey Oil Refinery in Lincolnshire go back to work, after an improved offer on use of foreign labour was proposed.

The deal, arising out of Acas talks, offers more than 100 new jobs for British workers out of a disputed 195.

The BBC understands no foreign workers will lose their posts as a result of the dispute at Total's oil refinery.

A proposal to offer 60 jobs to UK workers was earlier rejected, but Acas said it was never an official offer.

Negotiations have been going on since Monday.

On Wednesday morning protesters again gathered at Total's site, in North Killingholme, where the current row erupted a week ago.

Since then thousands of workers at more than 20 sites in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have taken part in sympathy walkouts and protests.

'Significant progress'

Tony Ryan, from the strike committee, told the Lindsey workers on Wednesday that union officials still had issues to discuss before the deal was finalised.

"We've made significant progress," Mr Ryan said.

"The stewards' recommendation tomorrow will be for the lads to return to work."

Acas said that a recommendation for 101 new jobs for a defined period was to be put to a mass workers' meeting on Thursday.

A statement issued by Total UK said it had agreed with Union officials to not present details of the proposed agreement until after the meeting.

It added: "We would like to highlight again that we have not, and will not, discriminate against British companies and British workers.

"We would like to thank Acas for its involvement in the talks and in helping us to reach a resolution."

And Bernard McAulay, national official for the Unite union, said he believed the deal would mean 102 new jobs for British workers only.

These will be recruited immediately for the project, which is due to last until 31 May 2009 and will be a mix of skilled and unskilled posts, he said.

Mr McAulay also praised the police, who he said attended the protests at the Lindsey refinery every day - including in heavy snowstorms.

"I would like to give credit to the police who have been fantastic. Everything has gone extremely well."

BBC correspondent Danny Savage said a deal that had put foreign workers out of a job "would have led to a huge row about protectionism".

Local workers

Gordon Brown, speaking at prime minister's question time, said new guidelines had been issued to try and prevent such a dispute from occurring again.

"The Construction and Engineering Association have issued new guiding principles for companies - principles to consider when using non-UK contractors and labour on engineering construction sites.

"I hope the whole House will welcome the fact that they now say, in their new advice, always consider whether there are competent workers available locally.

"If there are it is good practice for the non-UK contractor to explore and consider the local skills availability and to consider any applications that may be forthcoming."

Workers have been angry that a sub-contractor was "excluding" British workers by importing a ready-made workforce from Europe.

The suggested solution to give some of the jobs to Britons came after two days of talks between unions and the refinery owner, Total.

On Wednesday morning, workers heard a proposed deal would see 40 skilled and 20 unskilled jobs being made available to the British workforce.

But our correspondent said they believed the figure was too low, and rejected the deal.

They also demanded proof that the foreign workers being brought in were on the same pay and terms and conditions as their British counterparts.

Total has consistently claimed this is the case, but local workers do not believe it, Danny Savage added.

Ongoing protests

Unemployed workers and contractors in oil refineries, power stations and nuclear plants have been taking part in protests since last week.

Union activists have said the issue has been simmering in the industry for years, with British workers being excluded from applying for some jobs.

Work to expand the refinery was sub-contracted by Total's main contractor - engineering firm Jacobs - to an Italian company, IREM, which decided to use its own foreign workforce.

Total insisted it was not discriminating against British workers and that the decision to award the contract was fair.

Unite shop steward Kenny Ward said workers were "determined to achieve a victory at Lindsey because this is where the fight started".

He said people had had enough of employers using "unjust laws" to "pitch one European worker against fellow European workers" in the pursuit of profit.

Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite, told BBC Breakfast that besides this dispute there was a "wider problem" to address.

"Even if this dispute is settled [there is] still a major problem about how these foreign companies, who win contracts and come complete with a workforce, are going to create other difficulties.

"We need to build in some sort of concept that the jobs that are created by these contracts are open to everyone - to foreign and to UK workers.

"It will occur again, and I'm sure it will occur in other countries as well unless there's a realisation that you can't just use the freedom of labour to the exclusion of indigenous labour."

Protesters have vehemently denied the issue is about racism against the foreign workers themselves.

The CBI has backed Total, while Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has said the country should focus on the economics of the recession, not on "the politics of xenophobia".

Well, that was relatively painless.

[Jade Falcon]

I don't feel too harshly about being subjected to economic migration, since many Brits are working abroad anyway and will likely be the only option left for many workers still in the UK after the phony service economy gets crushed by the Depression, but skilled workers were leaving yeas before since a service economy is hostile to practical skills if big box corporations shifting so much manufacturing abroad (even chocolate). Britain has allegedly got less manufacturing than Italy.

The point still stands about just how many times can you keep retraining, especially when a year or two down the line, those jobs that you are meant to be retraining for will be shipped abroad. Some of the closures I grant you are economic, and a lot of the computer fabrication closures were quite a few years ago, but you can't keep retraining and retraining all the time.

[Big Orange]

I don't feel too harshly about being subjected to economic migration, since many Brits are working abroad anyway and will likely be the only option left for many workers still in the UK after the phony service economy gets crushed by the Depression, but skilled workers were leaving yeas before since a service economy is hostile to practical skills if big box corporations shifting so much manufacturing abroad (even chocolate). Britain has allegedly got less manufacturing than Italy.

The point still stands about just how many times can you keep retraining, especially when a year or two down the line, those jobs that you are meant to be retraining for will be shipped abroad. Some of the closures I grant you are economic, and a lot of the computer fabrication closures were quite a few years ago, but you can't keep retraining and retraining all the time.

That does not seem very sustainable if you keep moving the goal posts forward on everything and I won't be surprised if more people aged between 18 and 35 will leave this basket case service economy in their droves in the next decade.

Here is another article on the Total Oil strike:

The refinery dispute's lasting effects
By John Moylan
Business correspondent, BBC News

The dispute over the use of foreign workers at the Lindsey oil refinery may be over.

But its resolution has raised concerns over the rules on employing foreign staff and has led some to warn of more troubles ahead.

For the owner of the refinery, French oil giant Total, it means work can now resume on the extension to its existing refining capacity.

The company will not put a figure on the cost of the dispute, but work was held up for more than a week. The project is due to be completed by the end of the year.

Under the terms of the deal, brokered between Total, its subcontractors and the main unions, 102 new jobs will be created and advertised locally through a subcontractor.

Total expects that the vast majority of the jobs will go to local people.

New principle?

The main unions believe the Total dispute has established the principle of fair access for UK workers to jobs on UK building projects.

They regard the sector as a key battleground, aware that the UK is embarking on several major projects, not least a new generation of nuclear power plants.

That is why on Thursday they stepped up their campaign and switched attention to the French construction giant Alstom, which is currently building three new power plants in the UK.

Meanwhile, the construction industry, which has been at the centre of the dispute, this week revised its guidance to employers.

The Engineering Construction Industry Association has updated its advice, recommending that both UK and foreign workers be given equal opportunities when it comes to advertised jobs.

Legal matters

But the resolution has left some wondering where this leaves European Union law.

Under the EU's Posted Workers Directive, foreign workers can be brought in on a temporary basis, as long as they enjoy the same rights and pay as their local counterparts.

Total and its sub-contractors were therefore working well within the law when it gave a contract to an Italian company who intended to bring in some Italian and Spanish staff to carry out the work.

Unions argue, however, these rules have long been abused, with foreign staff undercutting the pay rates of UK workers.

But it is the fact that such contracts deny UK workers the right to apply for jobs that sparked the recent protest.

There are signs that the disputes in the UK, combined with unrest seen elsewhere in Europe, may be forcing politicians and policymakers to look again at how the regulation works.

The European Commission on Wednesday night confirmed that it had commissioned studies "to better understand the impact of the directive on the ground and the consequences of European Court rulings".

Legal does not of course mean fair and ethical, but at least these edjits in charge of the asylum are begining to learn...