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The UK has a Nationwide Strike!

TedShatner10

Commodore
Commodore
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."

---

Associated Press Writer Nancy Zuckerbrod contributed to this story.

Protectionism over the trade of products and resources is ill advised, but 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.
 
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.
My question would be what "going rate"? The one in Italy? Or Portugal? Or is it the one for that area of Britain?

OTOH, companies have the right to contract workers and deploy them anywhere in the world if they want to. There's no requirement that local labor be employed in any project, barring protectionism by the local government.
 
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.
My question would be what "going rate"? The one in Italy? Or Portugal? Or is it the one for that area of Britain?

OTOH, companies have the right to contract workers and deploy them anywhere in the world if they want to.


Not strictly true - if they tried to import a lot of non-EU workers into the EU to do the work, then it's likely they would be turned back unless they were qualified for an exemption from the work regualtion - this type of work wouldn't get that exemption as the company would find it difficult to prove that they couldn't recruit "locally" (and locally means the EU).

As for this specific issue - I haven't look at it, so can't comment. If we did retreat into local jobs for local workers - then it works both ways - I do a lot of business in brussels and if the doors were suddendly closed, I'd have to layoff 5 people who live and work in the UK.
 
I thought this thread was going to be about the estimated 20% of the entire workforce that took the day off work today because of the snow. ;)
 
Oh, unemployment, homes being repossessed, car plants closing, striking workers... are we sure this isn't the 80's?
 
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.

This unpleasant situation does more or less seem to be the straw that broke the camel's back.
 
I was reading the Daily Mail (I used to enjoy it more than I currently do) and in one of the pictures, a striker was wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap? so he could not have picked a cap with a British symbol on it?
 
Until the government forces to employ people at the same rate regardless of their country of origin I think more of these strikes will happen. At the moment our workers are being undercut.

One thing concerns me about all of this, is that racist parties like the BNP exploit this and use it as a recruiting tactic to get more members.
 
Well the British snow's so disappointing that we have to ship that in from Eastern Europe too. ;)

BRITISH SNOW FOR BRITISH WEATHER!!!
Some of your filthy British snow has ended up here in the Netherlands! :klingon:

Send it back. Here in Devon the snow is thawing and some of us are in danger of having to go into work tomorrow. Earlier I saw a couple of kids with body boards heading for the hills. Good Devonian children - attempting to taboggan using surfing equipment. :lol:
 
You know ... I entered a Work Experience program with an English school in London Soho.
At first I had issues with the visa as it got denied twice already on grounds that have little to no basis in logic or reason (which also created problems in the long run).
I finally got the visa, months after filing for the appeal, and now, after getting the details of my accommodations in London, I was informed by the school they are having difficulties finding me work placement for that part of the program.
They assured me they will find the work placement (in the hospitality industry and elsewhere in UK, such as Scotland or Wales), just that they are having issues with the recession and all.

Now, I cannot speak for others, but I entered this program legally, and fought hard for my student visa (which also doesn't last 1 year as much as the program does, but only 11 months ... meaning I will have to extend it several months before the program ends if I want to stay in UK and actually get that diploma ... they failed to take into consideration the month I was waiting to get the visa itself, as well as the fact that I cannot just pack up my bags and leave without putting things into order in Croatia).
I also sympathize with native British folk who are without jobs ... but this particular work placement is part of the school program and international students are able to apply.
So I don't think I'm personally stealing it from anyone (and I'll likely get paid minimum wage ... which is fine by me).

Problems on numerous ends.
I just hope I will get some concrete answers/extra confirmations/details from the school's representative I am in contact with before I depart.
She's been out of the office to telephone is not an option ... e-mails are the only recourse, and she didn't reply to my last e-mail (although she did on the e-mail before that ... so I guess she is busy).
 
Don't worry, soon the IMF will step in & we'll have a 3 day week and we'll be in the 70s instead.

I'm a bit young to remember that but one of my mates already is already on a 3 day week (Just got cut down this week).

Ah, I'm sorry to hear that. Another classic sign of the fag-end of a Labour government...

Until the government forces to employ people at the same rate regardless of their country of origin. I think more of these strikes will happen. At the moment our workers are being undercut.

While I'm sympathetic to the annoyance of workers at seeing the loss of contracts to foreign workers, the unsympathetic part of me is bound to point out that this is all entirely consistent with EU law and an inevitable consequence of free trade within the EU. To do as you suggest would almost certainly be illegal under EU law. Now, I'm very far from a fan of much of what the EU does (in fact I really dislike a lot of what it does), but the one good thing it does is try to achieve a large free trade zone. In the long term, applying protectionist measures to subsidise local economies will distort & create inefficiencies in the market and worsen the British economy and the economic prospects of the wider population.

The above all assumes one subscribes to capitalist theories of free trade which I know not everyone does... but if you do, you can't have your cake & eat it when it comes to employment issues like this. These contracted foreign workers are all receiving at least the UK minimum wage, so their employment is entirely legal and to force employers NOT to employ them in favour of UK citizens would actually be illegal.
 
I understand what you're saying, Holdfast, we can't throw out the baby with the bathwater since many British born people are working abroad, but but the bullshit that Total Oil has pulled is intrinsically hostile to the British population and will be unsustainable if it carries on like this throughout the country - why should business executive and shareholders abandon the population that made them wealthy in the first place?
 
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