Oil refinery workers in Britain won an important victory in their struggle to keep their jobs last month after taking unofficial strike action. More than one thousand contract workers who worked for the French multinational Total at Lindsey oil refinery in North Lincolnshire went on strike on 11th June after a sub contractor cut 51 jobs at the refinery. 647 workers were then subsequently sacked by Total for the walkout. They were told that they could reapply for their jobs by 22nd June provided they ended the strike.
The workers refused to be beaten and fought back against the attack with some burning their dismissal papers in defiance. Instead of waiting to go through official routes and face challenges which would slow down action due to anti-trade union laws, workers spread the action to defend their jobs themselves through a combination of flying pickets, mass meetings and networks created through previous strike action earlier in the year. At least 26 other construction sites throughout the country became involved and a few thousand workers walked out in solidarity with the strikers at Lindsey. This included over 900 construction and maintenance staff at Sellafield nuclear power complex in Cumbria and at least 1000 workers at the Ensus wheat refinery in Teeside. At one site just down the road from the Lindsey oil refinery 200 workers blocked the road to prevent trucks from arriving. Sacked workers also threatened to stage a demonstration outside Total’s headquarters in Paris.
The militant action of the workers forced Total to reopen talks, reinstate the workers at the oil refinery who had walked out and re-employ the 51 workers whose sacking prompted the strike. Although for the latter 51 workers this only guarantees them four weeks work up until the project that they were working on is completed. The deal also included the promise that workers who took action in solidarity with the Lindsey strikers would not be victimised.
Workers in Britain are continuing to feel the effects of the global economic crisis. Unemployment is still rising and is expected to reach 3 million by the end of the year
Massive job cuts and attacks on labour rights are reported each week. In the same week that the workers at Lindsey oil refinery won back their jobs, steelmaking company Corus, which has already cut 2,500 jobs this year, announced its plans to cut a further 2,000 jobs mostly in Britain. At the same time more than 800 British Airway workers have also pressured into working for free for a month.
In the face of such attacks the victory of the workers at Lindsey oil refinery is an encouraging example showing how workers can fight back and win against attacks on their right to work. The workers won back their jobs as they were prepared to take illegal and unofficial strike action and fight back against a system which victimises them.
The workers were victims of the contract system. At the same time that 51 workers were laid off (the original reason for the strike) by one contractor, another contractor at the same site was looking for 60 workers to fill vacancies. The contract system divides workers as they are played off against each other and forced to compete for contracts. This sort of division allows employers to drive down wages and working conditions making it easier for them to exploit workers. Divisions between workers, which could be used in this way, were actually seen at a major strike by workers at Lindsey oil refinery earlier in the year as workers were divided along national lines. In January over 1000 workers from the refinery went on strike in a dispute about workers from overseas working at the plant. This strike also spread very quickly to other construction sites across the country.
To look at the European Union’s Posted Workers Directive provides some understanding of the strike. Under the Posted Workers’ Directive companies can employ workers and post them overseas under the employment terms and conditions of the country that they are hired from. Employers then only have to uphold the minimum conditions guaranteed by the law of the company that they send the workers to. This means that they can ignore any previously negotiated union agreements, for example with regards to working hours and wages and can just pay the basic legal minimum wage. Any initiative which seeks to keep wages and conditions low, and undermines the unions clearly represents an attack on workers’ rights. Workers are therefore right to be angry and to take up the fight against the use of subcontracted labour by companies to the extent that it is an attack on the labour rights of all workers.
The strikes at Lindsey at the beginning of the year represented an important attempt by workers in Britain at fighting back against these attacks on them. Instead of identifying with the way that the attacks they face were tied to attacks by global capitalism exploiting all workers internationally, however, many striking workers took up the nationalist slogan of “British jobs for British workers,” a slogan which came from a speech made by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the Labour Party conference in 2007. The strike centred round the xenophobic claim that foreign workers were taking jobs away from British workers. This was backed up by the unions, which have called for quotas for British workers and worked towards sending migrant workers back to their home countries. Derek Simpson the General Secretary of Unite the Union (a union with strong links to the Labour Party) has been among those openly supporting the call for “British jobs for British workers.” The support for such a slogan is very dangerous as it blames the victims and benefits the employers by endorsing competition and creating further divisions among workers.
Migrant workers are not to blame for the terms of their employment. Just like other workers they seek employment where they can in order to support themselves and their families. They are victims of the same system of capitalism as British workers; a system which seeks to exploit them by keeping wages and working conditions low to maximise profits. The concept of “British jobs” is also flawed in itself as many workers are employed by multinational companies and capital is moved about beyond national boundaries. Instead of calling for “British jobs for British workers,” a slogan which divides workers along artificial national lines, a stronger slogan would therefore be to demand jobs for all workers. Such a slogan identifies a common interest of all workers and is one which workers can unite round in order to fight back together.
Although they have not completely disappeared and some workers still identified with them, nationalist slogans played much less of a role in the more recent strike. The fact that the call for “British jobs for British workers” is a slogan associated Gordon Brown may be one reason why it has lost support with some workers. The Labour government’s continued attacks on working people through the economic crisis have made Brown increasingly unpopular. Some workers on strike recently were also identifying with the need to fight together with workers from abroad.
While there is the danger that the slogan will re-emerge, it is the great degree of solidarity shown by the workers, with workers from different construction sites across Britain taking action together in the fight to keep jobs, which should be emphasised. Workers from overseas were also among those who took part in solidarity action. For example workers from Poland, working at a power station in North Yorkshire, walked out in solidarity with those on strike at Lindsey oil refinery. This is the sort of example that should be taken away from the recent victory. It is when workers are completely united and fight back collectively that they have a chance of success.