Some history on the Lindsey construction workers dispute and their industry.

That the construction workers, who are currently engaged in an industrial dispute at the Lindsey Oil refinery have quickly gained the support of engineering construction workers who are employed on similar sites throughout the UK, is indicative of the discontent that is prevalent throughout the industry.

The blame for this dispute can be firmly laid at the door of the employers and commissioning Multinationals, that it has spilled out across the Engineering section of the construction industry is because the mainly skilled workers who work within the industry have managed up until now; and against all the odds, to face down a concerted attempt by their employers to eliminate all trade union organization from their sites. Standing behind the employers have been the Multi nationals like Total and E,ON, who commission the larger contracts in this industry. The employers for over two decades have conducted a running battle of attrition against their workforce in an attempt to cherry pick away past trade union gains and remove by fair means or foul experienced trade unionist from both sections of the construction industry.

The Construction industry was one of the last major employers in the UK to end casualization and the lump. Trade unionists fought major battles in the late 1940s-50s and 60s to end the casualization of the Industry. Before trade unionists put a stop to it, workers gathered on the pavements of British cities, or at the gates of construction sites in the early mornings looking for a day's or a weeks work. Subcontractors or the agents of the larger companies came along and picked out their favorites, and those who looked fit and strong and had no hint of trade unionism about them. The men were then put into battered and often unroadworthy vans and delivered like a commodity to the large post war construction sites at Heathrow airport, the Isle of Grain, West Thurrock power station and later Petrochemical works at Shell Haven and Coryton, etc, etc.

Gradually workers organized their industry, at the fore were the skilled workers, many of whom had done their apprenticeships or learnt their craft in the army in WW2, motor manufacturing, ship building and repair, and various other industries that were already trade union organized.

By the late 1960s-1970s the engineering construction industry was one of the better places to work, far from perfect, but due to being almost 100% organized, the workers were paid above average wages, safety conditions on site had improved beyond all recognition, with TU members appointed as safety stewards on all large sites. The workers on most large engineering construction projects would also elect a full time convener or senior shop steward.

Then Thatcher was elected, and anti trade union legislation was placed on the statute book, which emboldened the employers within the industry to attempt to claw back half a century of trade union gains. They did this in a number of ways, blacklisting experienced trade union activists, bringing in agencies to hire and fire, sectioning out contracts so that workers could only be guaranteed employment for a comparatively short period, after which they need to reapply for their jobs, and bringing in over seas workers in an attempt to lessen a sites solidarity and morale

The end result of this is workers within the construction industry have seen little if any real improvement in their actual take home wage over the last 20 years, if any thing, after the Labour government was elected in 1997, their take home wages, working conditions and contracts of employment have deteriorated.

One need only look at the ages of the Lindsey workers to see there has been a determined effort by the employers in the last two decades to replace organized British based workers with non Trade Union labour from overseas. You will need to look long and hard to find many Lindsey workers who are under 35 years of age, many are nearing retirement. This is because despite making massive profits over the last two decades, neither the sub contractors nor the Petrochemical or electrical generating Multinationals who commission the major projects, have a system in place of recruiting an adequate number of apprentices to restock the industry with new craftsmen and women.

This lack of apprentices coming into the industry is not a mere oversight on the part of the employers, but a deliberate policy to shut out UK based workers, in favor of non unionized and more pliable labour from abroad. To suggest as the Multi Nationals who commission the contracts have, that they only engage foreign labour because they cannot find enough skilled workers in the UK is the hight of hypocrisy and deceit for the aforementioned reasons.

After 20 years in slumber, this is what has finally woken the engineering construction workers to the fate their employers have in store for them. They were to go the same way as the coal miners, merchant marine, car workers and much of the UK manufacturing base.

This why workers as far a field as Longannet power station in Scotland, Coryton Oil Refinery on the River Thames rim, South Hook Terminal in South Wales, and Sellafield in the northwest of England are part of the current dispute. For they all know if they lose this dispute and fail to regain a major trade union presence within the industry, they will be consigned to the industrial scrap heap.

This dispute is truly the beginning of a fight back, not only to defend the jobs of those who currently work in the engineering construction industry, but also those of future generations. They are the type of highly skilled jobs which both Tory and Labour politicians are telling the media should become the backbone of the British economy. This in itself poses the question why aren’t both Labour and Conservative MP’s 100% behind these workers in their fight to maintain a viable home based engineering construction industry?