Message to the workers: don’t frak with your French bosses

Nearly 900 workers constructing a new plant at the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire have been sacked, following unofficial strike action.

This one is going to be interesting to follow.

Either they can generate enough sympathy strike support to inconvenience enough other employers to put pressure on Total, or the vast majority of the 900 workers realise they cant afford to sit there for the long haul and sign up on new contracts and break the strike.

Fire up the Quattro lads, it’s the 70s again! 🙂

The wisdom of ‘unofficial strike action’ during a recession while working in an industry not famous for long term job security is one that deserves a closer examination.

Combine this with the growing rumours of another bout of fuel protests and we could well have an ickle summer of discontent ahead…..Hold on tight, folks!

A summer of content would make for a very quiet STW forum. Jeez, we’d all start talking about holidays, bikes, clothes…

“It is disgraceful that this has happened without any consultation. It is also unlawful and it makes me feel sick.”

Strangely it would appear he is talking about the totally lawful sacking, not the unlawful strike 🙄

This is in line with the union and industry agreed process that negotiations over illegal strikes cannot commence until the workforce has returned to work.

Out of interest, has anyone heard of this convention before?

The wisdom of ‘unofficial strike action’ during a recession while working in an industry not famous for long term job security is one that deserves a closer examination.

well said.

Would the sackings be possible under French law? I doubt it

You beat me to it aracer

Time will tell how powerful the unions still are. I sense a load of red flags flying soon. Just what the country needs. How much will the union leaders be earning whilst they’re telling their member to do “what’s right”?

TJ are you suggesting that French employment laws are a good thing?

Would the sackings be possible under French law? I doubt it

No, instead, the workers just go for kidnapping the boss until their demands are met. A wholly acceptable form of behaviour, I’m sure you’ll agree.

These people are employed in the UK. Accordingly, their rights as workers are dervied from local law. What has French law got to do with this?

Well I suppose the fact that Total are a French company is what TJ is referring to, although given that the sacked workers don’t actually work for Total I’m not sure what the point is either.

Ironic that a French company sacks people for striking…

That’ll learn ’em.
Damned idiots shouldn’t have gone on strike in the first place. For the life of me all I’ve ever seen it that it’s just shooting yourself squarely in both feet.
Personally I’m glad somebody’s had the balls to stand up to them, there’s plenty of people to fill the vacancies.

gonefishin – I’ve just seen that point – these people are employed by Total’s contractors. Ergo, unless there’s a TUPE position here, Total is not their employer.

Presumably, commercial pressure has been placed on the contractors, who have then acted in the only way they can.

The point I was trying to make is that I don’t think that total could act in this way in France

And yes I do think European employment laws that give protection to the workforce are a good thing. There are many examples of multiational companies needing to shut a plant – so they shut the UK one rather than the french / German / Dutch one as here the workers get less protection

The point I was trying to make is that I don’t think that total could act in this way in France

Go and find out and report back.

In the meantime, please remember two things: (1) Total UK Limited is a company registered in England and Wales (i.e. under English law) and (2) notwithstandiung that, Total is not the employer of the sacked people – they are employed by companies (separate legal entities) which are contracted (presumably at arms’ length) by Total to complete a construction activity.

Now, it may well be that, as a result of the behaviour of the employees, Total placed plenty of pressure on the contractors (not least because the contractors would likely be losing money hand over fist through liquidated damages provisions in their contracts) to ditch them, but ultimately it is not Total’s decision to do this, and therefore the fact that it is owned by a French parent is entirely irrelevant to this.

Whether we ought to complete further harmonisation of employment rights and practices through the EU is also a separate point.

The wisdom of ‘unofficial strike action’ during a recession while working in an industry not famous for long term job security is one that deserves a closer examination.

Yes it does deserve closer examination………BECAUSE THEY WON !

All the Total workers demands – the reinstatement of almost 700 sacked engineers and construction workers, including the original 51, has been agreed by the employers. Despite the employers claim that it had nothing to do with them, as they had sub-contracted all the work out.

And there are indeed important lessons to be learnt. Such as – just how effective ordinary workers can be in standing up to ruthless employers when they have the confidence and the determination to fight.

But most important of all the sheer power, of sympathy and solidarity action.

Outraged by the callous sacking of 51 of their colleagues, over 600 Lindsey oil refinery workers walked out in sympathy. They were promptly sacked by an employer keen to exploit the most repressive employment laws of any western industrialised country in the world. Thereby escalating the dispute which eventually saw 4,000 workers in the UK energy industry take industrial action in solidarity with their colleagues – with complete disregard of course, to the financial costs to themselves.

And there is are also lessons to be learnt by employers. This unnecessary dispute has cost Total £85 million. So next time callous profit-greedy employers consider exploiting the UK’s repressive anti-trade union laws to squeeze every last drop of profit from their employees, they might think twice……before ‘shooting themselves squarely in both feet’ as PeterPoddy might say.

I sense a wind of change blowing through Britain. After decades of lying down and taking it all, British workers are slowly starting to stand up. They have had enough of being trampled all over. They have had enough of a Labour government/party (which they finance) doing nothing. There is still a very long way to go – but the abused has at last, snapped back at the abuser.

It’s shameful that workers have to resort to such drastic action.

I don’t like militancy, but then nasty greedy barstools with no social responsiblity do need a wake up call now and again.

Being a French employer, they know better not to upset workers. The French make striking a national passtime. I suppose they thought the British workers would roll over and die.

Energy companies have been doing very well recently (unlike most other businesses). Surprising that they felt they needed a headcount reduction. There are a lot of firms playing on worker’s feelings of insecurity, purely to save money – shame on them! For example, look at BA! It should be registered as a charity!

they felt they needed a headcount reduction

On the contrary, that was the whole problem and what enraged the Lindsey oil refinery workers – it wasn’t about ‘a headcount reduction’. They were recruiting as they were sacking. Obviously they were exploiting the availability of cheaper labour during a global recession.

Unfortunately their ‘cost saving exercise’ cost them £85 million.

Of course the argument in favour of keeping wages down to the absolute minimum to maximise profits only ever applies to workers. A completely different set of rules apply to company executives and the like. In their case, it is very important that their wages should be obscenely high.

As was amply illustrated today when Network Rail used the media’s distraction due to Michael Jackson’s death, to release details of their bosses staggering pay packages :

Rail bosses are paying themselves £1.2million in bonuses despite presiding over chronic delays

Remember, the taxpayer (and that includes Lindsey oil refinery workers) pay for Network Rail’s ‘profit’.

As was amply illustrated today when Network Rail used the media’s distraction due to Michael Jackson’s death, to release details of their bosses staggering pay packages

Actually the details of their bonuses were sent out to the various interested parties the day before Michael Jackson died. The fact that the information arrived at the press offices in the morning by post sort of proves that it was not a case of ‘burying bad news’, rather purely a case of bad timing.

I do agree with the sentiments of your earlier post though. A few too many companies are using the current downturn in the world economy as an excuse to cut costs to an unexceptable level, safe in the knowledge that many employees are too scared of losing their jobs and end up defaulting on the mortgages of their vastly over-valued houses to cause any issues.

One large telecoms company is really taking the piss with their employees

Not content with messing up the pensions whereby employees will have to work an extra five years to get what they expected and imposing a pay freeze
(this comes after paying various departing managers millions for messing up big time)

Now they are trying to impose rostered working hours that could start at 7am and finish at 9pm, compulsory saturdays and being able to extend the working day by 2 hours up to three times a week
Even worse in my opinion they also want to be able to force people to work away from home for up to 4 months a year

All this on top of still making a profit and exporting a bucket load of jobs to the subcontinent.

This particular company like to make a big deal about work life balance, yeah right!!

(1) Total UK Limited is a company registered in England and Wales

In which case, could someone have a word with the BBC News presenters, and ask them to stop pronouncing it in a French accent.

it was not a case of ‘burying bad news’, rather purely a case of bad timing.

Fair enough – not ‘a case of burying bad news’ then.

But I wouldn’t call it ‘bad timing’ though – more an example of ‘extremely lucky timing’ I would say. I reckon that had it not been for Michael Jackson’s death, there would have been a very good chance that a news story about rail bosses awarding themselves staggering bonuses for failure, might have made the front pages.

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Anyway going back to the Lindsey oil refinery workers, how come no comment from Stoner ? 😯
Stoner who said quote “This one is going to be interesting to follow.”

Come on Stoner – I know you have very strong views on this sort of topic. I was expecting you to detail how workers winning a battle against a greedy employer was bad for the workers, bad for Britain, and bad for the industry.

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😉

jackos death has killed all news and will continue to do so, still annoyine from beyond the grave

I sense a wind of change blowing through Britain. After decades of lying down and taking it all, British workers are slowly starting to stand up. They have had enough of being trampled all over. They have had enough of a Labour government/party (which they finance) doing nothing. There is still a very long way to go – but the abused has at last, snapped back at the abuser.

I wonder if they said something like that towards the end of 1978.

Yes it does deserve closer examination………BECAUSE THEY WON !

All the Total workers demands – the reinstatement of almost 700 sacked engineers and construction workers, including the original 51, has been agreed by the employers. Despite the employers claim that it had nothing to do with them, as they had sub-contracted all the work out.

And there are indeed important lessons to be learnt. Such as – just how effective ordinary workers can be in standing up to ruthless employers when they have the confidence and the determination to fight.

But most important of all the sheer power, of sympathy and solidarity action.

But the question becomes, did they really win?

In the short term, they’ve achieved their aims,

however, given the cost and time over-runs that took place in this project, in large part due to strike action and repeated demands by the unionised workers, do you think that any of these contractors will be reemployed on any future capex projects by Total or any other petrochem company? In fact, do you think Total would choose to build a facility in the UK again if they had the option to do it elsewhere?

This is what the unions did in the past, killed the competitiveness of our industry so stone dead that no-one was willing to invest.

I’d be willing to bet that next time there is a major petrochemical facility built, None of the contractors involved in this will be rehired, The money will go to European contract companies with a proven ability to deliver without problems, any remaining UK contractors involved in the project will unofficially blacklist workers from the Lindsey project as trouble makers.

So, at the end of this job, they’re royally fecked, as are the contract companies that they worked for – so, did they really win?

did anyone watch crude britania on bbc4 tonight covered the unionisation of north sea oil workers
only became possible after major crash in oil price wonder if the low prices now increase the workers position while potential rises embolden total
price of oil could determine the outcome of this in the medium term

aracer – Member

I wonder if they said something like that towards the end of 1978.

Undoubtedly ‘something like that’ will have been expressed by some, aracer.

But of course 2009 is vastly different to 1978.

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Changes in societies never occur without reasons. And those who can be bothered, will often make reasonable assumptions.

Zulu-Eleven – You’ve missed the point.

The unions were not involved. Under the repressive anti-trade union UK laws it would have been illegal for them to have organised the strikes.

That is the whole point. The workers took direct action themselves, circumventing the trade unions – such was the level of anger.

Anti-trade union laws are no longer working. That is the point. That is why I believe things might really start to change now.

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“This is what the unions did in the past, killed the competitiveness of our industry so stone dead that no-one was willing to invest.”

Again, you have completely missed the point.

The industries were killed off after the trade unions had been neutralised.

The government/employers knew that they had to neutralise the trade unions, before they could dismantle the industries and shift production overseas.

i guess oil is our biggest money maker outside of the financial services sector, by ernies reasoning and recent historical precedent our current thatcherite; government/current opposition/future govmnt will seek to kill off this action and come down with the oil compannies until the wells run dry – (20 yrs max accordin to my oil industry missus)