British Workers Recover Jobs After Mass Protests
By ANGELA HENSHALL and LANANH NGUYEN
LONDON -- Hundreds of laid-off U.K. workers got their jobs back this
week after organizing mass protests at energy plants across the
country, coordinated through text messages and social-networking Web
sites.
The contractor companies at Total SA's 200,000-barrels-a-day Lindsey
oil refinery met nearly all the striking workers' demands, which had
become a rallying cry of sympathy strikes across the U.K.'s
engineering-construction industry. More than 8% of the industry's work
force walked out, although the protests didn't have an impact on
production.
"Total are pleased the contractors and their work force were able to
reach a positive conclusion," a spokeswoman for the French oil major
said. The strikes bypassed official trade-union channels as they
weren't called after a vote by members and didn't go through the
U.K.'s legal requirements for industrial action.
Employers agreed to reinstate the entire 647-strong work force at
Lindsey and, on Monday, a full return to work on a £200 million ($331
million) construction project to build a refinery unit, according to a
joint statement late Thursday.
The speed and scale of the wildcat strikes, unprecedented in the U.K.,
caught energy companies by surprise, with protests organized by
assembling large groups of people at specific sites through mass text
messages.
"The idea of spreading it by text messages was just instinctive, you
get your mate on the phone," said Alistair Tice, a regional secretary
for the U.K. Socialist Party in the Yorkshire and Humberside region.
The engineering-construction industry is largely composed of itinerant
workers with networks all over the country, making it easier for
strikers to mobilize, he said. For years, U.K. governments have taken
a hands-off approach to industrial disputes. However, as the U.K.
recession has deepened, the government has appeared more willing to
assert its views.
"I'm sure the government was concerned and was closely monitoring the
situation, but there was no direct pressure," said Mike Hockey,
managing director of the Engineering Construction Industry Association.
On Friday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman welcomed news of
the deal. "It is a positive step forward," he said. "We've made clear
on a number of occasions over the last week or so that it's important
that talks do resume."_______________________________________________
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