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Vol. 73/No. 28      July 27, 2009

 
Chauvinist strike deal in UK is
blow to uniting working class
(front page)
 
BY CELIA PUGH  
LONDON—Construction workers at the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire in the north of England agreed June 29 to return to work after a deal between the French-owned Total company and the Unite and GMB unions.

The strike and agreement is a rerun of reactionary strike actions in January and May against foreign-born workers and are a blow to working-class unity.

Under terms of the agreement, 51 workers who were made redundant (laid off) and another 647 who were sacked as a result of the strike were reinstated. The unofficial strikes around the country began June 11 when the 51 jobs were cut while the company continued to hire immigrant workers. An estimated 3,000 contracted oil and gas workers from around the United Kingdom joined these actions.

On the eve of the settlement Unite general secretary Les Bayliss met with the employers to tackle “grievances” over hiring and firing at the refinery.

The London-based Guardian newspaper reported that the discussions included a previous agreement with the unions that no British workers would lose their jobs while Italian and Portuguese immigrant workers were still on the work site. The foreign-born workers were shipped in on a barge at Grimsby docks.

GMB general secretary Paul Kenny announced that the union had launched a £100,000 (US$162,000) hardship fund for the strikers and was pressing ahead with a national ballot of thousands of workers in the industry on the settlement. Total reported that the action had left the construction project next to the Lindsey site six months behind schedule.

Socialist Worker, a newspaper reflecting the views of the Socialist Workers Party in the United Kingdom hailed the reactionary the strikes, declaring, “Its time for a total shutdown” and “Spread the strikes.” The paper criticized the main slogan of the actions—“British jobs,” saying it had been “pushed back but … remains a danger.”

However, the deal brokered by Total and the unions rests on the very same divisive, reactionary British-first nationalism that fueled the first strikes in January at the Lindsey refinery.

This was repeated again in May when the unions backed unofficial strikes in Wales over the hiring of foreign contract workers. Kenny then stated, “There is widespread anger and outrage at repeated attempts in different projects around the country to exclude local people from job opportunities.”

The Socialist Party in the United Kingdom attempted to deny the nationalist character of the strikes, citing media reports that journalists searched in vain to find banners demanding “British jobs for British workers.” “Workers at South Hook,” the SP said on its Web site, “were not opposed to laggers from Poland getting work on the site as long as local laggers were given the opportunity of the work first under the union agreement.” Forty Polish workers were removed from the site by the company.

Worker correspondents for the Militant visited the Lindsey site June 23 and spoke with workers there. One of the many British-first placards present summed up the action: “British jobs, on British sites, for British labour,” it read. Asked if any steps had been taken to strengthen the working class—native and foreign born—to fight together for jobs, one worker said that the Portuguese and Italians “don’t want to know.”

Another striker said, “I’m not xenophobic or racist but we should start with the British workers and then top up with European brothers if there is a shortage,” adding that the foreign-born workers don’t have the right papers or skills for the job.

Alex Xezonakis contributed to this article.
 
 
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U.S. gov’t announces new attack on immigrants  
 
 
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