IT is reprehensible that neither the contractors nor BP seem to give a toss about these 430 workers who have been locked out but the GMB does care and will escalate the campaign for justice, said the union on Friday.
The GMB announced a new four part plan to end the lock out at the BP construction site in Saltend in Hull.
The 430 workers have been locked out of the site since 14th March 2011.
The four-point plan is as follows:
• GMB will start a hardship fund with an initial donation of £100,000. GMB is issuing an appeal for further funds from other parts of the trade union movement and is putting in place arrangements for financial support for the Saltend victimised workers from all engineering construction sites in the UK.
• A national meeting of Shop Stewards from all the engineering construction sites in the UK will take place to discuss the deterioration in industrial relations in the industry. This meeting is scheduled for 18th April.
• GMB will issue a site alert regarding the BP Saltend site to all its members in all trades in the construction industry as the union is concerned that any worker offered employment on the site will need to firmly establish that the financial support is available to enable the project to be completed.
• GMB also plan to bring the injustice of this situation and the workers’ protest to a wider audience of public and civil institutions.
At a meeting on Wednesday 30th March, the project manager, part of the Jacob Group, were told by GMB officials that the way to resolve this lock-out is for the workers to be allowed to go back to work.
BP, Du Point and British Sugar make up a consortium Vivergo Fuels Ltd which is client for this project to build the £200m biofuel ethanol plant.
Vivergo Fuels Ltd awarded the contract to manage the project to Aker Process part of the US Jacob Group. The role of the project managers is to source tenders for the contract to build the plant.
The engineering construction workforce at Saltend was employed by a range of contractors under the National Agreement for the Engineering Construction Industry. Redhall Engineering Solutions Ltd was awarded the contract for mechanical piping within the scope of work in February 2010 with 316 manual workers and 134 staff workers.
Other contractors are DSL (Deborah Services Ltd) Scaffolding with 63 manual workers, SEC Electrical 40 manual workers, Syntex Engineering Services with 17 manual workers, FB Taylor with ten manual workers and Mammoet Cranes with 15 manual workers.
On 11 March 2011, notice was served upon Redhall Engineering Solutions Ltd by Vivergo Fuels Ltd for performance-related issues, thereby terminating any agreement between themselves and Redhall Engineering Solutions Ltd.
Redhall Engineering Solutions Ltd issued a communiqué to the workers stating that as from 07.31 on Monday 14 March 2011 they will no longer be employed by them and should turn up for work to be transferred under TUPE legislation to either Vivergo Fuels Ltd or any contractor that is given the contract.
When the members turned up for work on Monday 14th March, Aker Process Ltd on behalf of Vivergo Fuels Ltd denied any liability to employ the transferred staff.
This left GMB members in an impossible situation in that they were locked out and have not received any wages since 07.31am on 14th March 2011. Workers from the other contractors have been sent home on full pay.
Paul Kenny, GMB General Secretary said: ‘It is reprehensible that neither the contractors nor BP seem to give a toss about these 430 workers who have been locked out.
‘The GMB does care and will escalate the campaign for justice.
‘If BP thought that this problem would quietly disappear they lack any real knowledge about GMB and its members.
‘BP has had ample opportunity to help resolve the dispute but they have chosen to ignore the injustice to these 430 workers.
‘GMB is in contact with organisations in the United States where BP is still paying for its reckless and irresponsible behaviour in the Gulf of Mexico last year.
‘It is clear that BP have not taken to heart President Obama’s strictures for them to behave responsibly.
‘If it looks like an attack on workers’ rights and it smells like an attack on workers’ rights then it most certainly is an attack on workers’ rights.
‘There are growing fears that this “lock-out” is nothing more than a ruse to bring in a different, lower-paid workforce and the sacking of Redhalls was a smokescreen to give this cover.
‘When the project manager, Jacobs, terminated their contract with Redhall Engineering Solutions last month the workforce should have been transferred under TUPE transfer rules to the new contractor so that they could complete the work.
‘Instead the project manager put a padlock on the gate of the site and they have been locked out since then.’
• Meanwhile, residents from opposite ends of North America are travelling to London for a showdown with BP.
Representatives of First Nation communities affected by the massive Tar Sands project in northern Canada are working in partnership with fishermen and women whose lives and livelihoods have been destroyed by BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill off the Gulf Coast.
They will be joined inside the AGM on Thursday 14 April by UK campaigners and angry shareholders, many of whom are planning on voting against the board.
This unprecedented coalition has come together following a year in which BP has been responsible for the largest marine oil spill in history.
Despite this, a few months later BP announced that it was heading into an equally if not more risky ‘unconventional oil’ venture: its first Tar Sands extraction project.
Representatives of affected communities, campaigners and shareholders are therefore joining forces to deliver a simple message to BP at its London AGM on Thursday: ‘Stay away from unconventional oil, it’s just too risky.’
There will be a protest outside and around 30 people will enter the AGM to ask questions, deliver the message ‘No Tar Sands’ in a very visual way, and present BP with the not-so-prestigious ‘International ethecon Black Planet Award’ for environmental destruction.
Diane Wilson, a fourth-generation fisherwoman from the Texas Gulf Coast who was recently arrested for protesting against BP and is facing a jail sentence for up to 800 days, will present the ethecon Black Planet award to BP in person, along with the Chairman of ethecon.
Diane will be joined by several other representatives from the Gulf Coast region.
She says: ‘I am coming to the AGM to call BP to account for its actions in the Gulf – for the oil spill, the lies, the cover-ups, the skimping on safety, the deaths, the non-existent documents, the “swinging door” with regulators.
‘The massive nature of the oil catastrophe means it can’t be covered up, even by BP.
‘It’s everywhere, from 5,000 feet down to miles upon miles across and then spread in the ocean’s currents.
‘I am coming to articulate the anger of thousands of Gulf Coast residents whose lives and livelihoods have been destroyed while the BP board continues to prosper.’
BP’s decision to enter into its first Tar Sands extraction project will also be criticised by a group of Indigenous activists brought over by the Indigenous Environmental Network.
Melina Laboucan-Massimo from the Lubicon Cree First Nation will speak from direct experience about what this kind of ‘in situ’ Tar Sands extraction really involves.
She said: ‘BP is touting its “in situ” extraction project as an environmentally responsible alternative to surface mining, but it is nothing of the sort.
‘There are many “in situ” mines on my First Nation’s territory. They pollute the water and the air, dramatically disrupt local ecosystems, and emit more greenhouse gas per barrel than surface mining.
‘They are operating on our native peoples’ land without consent and it’s important that BP shareholders understand the risks of legal action from First Nations.
‘BP must do the sensible thing and leave tar sands in the ground.’
The community representatives will be joined by UK activists determined to hold this iconic British company to account for its dirty operations across the globe.
Jess Worth from the UK Tar Sands Network said: ‘Uncertainty in the Middle East and dwindling supplies of conventional oil elsewhere should be a signal to move into more sustainable forms of energy.
‘Instead, BP is responding by charging head first into dangerous, expensive and highly polluting sources of unconventional and marginal oil, such as Tar Sands, deepwater drilling and the Arctic.
‘Pollution from the Tar Sands is equivalent to a Gulf Coast oil spill every month. The Board has clearly lost the plot so we are going to the AGM to set them straight.’
The coalition will gather together in advance of the AGM for a major public meeting, on Tuesday 12 April, 7pm at Rich Mix, 35 – 47 Bethnal Green Road, London, E1.
