A GMB National Officer was arrested at the protest against the lockout of 430 workers at BP Saltend, in Hull yesterday morning.
GMB national officer Phil Whitehurst was arrested while he was attending the lawful protest against the lock-out and is in police custody at Hull police station.
Video footage that he took of yesterday morning’s event has been confiscated.
GMB legal officers have been in contact with the police and have made clear that the Union will challenge the police over this arrest at a legal protest.
New talks in the dispute were convened yesterday by ACAS and Whitehurst was diverted from a meeting in South Wales by Paul Kenny, GMB General Secretary, to attend the BP dispute talks at Hull yesterday morning.
Maria Ludkin, GMB National Legal Officer said: ‘GMB members who have been locked out of the BP site at Hull since 11th March have been engaged in lawful, legal protest against BP and the main contractors trashing their legal rights to work on this site.
‘Every attempt by the Union to get BP to reopen the site to allow our members to complete this engineering project has been met with a blank refusal to even acknowledge that these workers have rights which are being trampled upon.
‘GMB has made every effort to organise the protest in the usual way, based on our experience of lawful protest which takes place around the country without any arrests.
‘In this dispute, our officials have been harassed every day by a high volume of police, and new conditions about how the protest is conducted.
‘Police have threatened to arrest our officials on a daily basis for acts such as taking photos of Union members on the protest, or stepping off a kerb onto the road.
‘It is obvious to us that the officers controlling the event, in particular, Inspector Hinch from Hull police, have a political agenda designed to intimidate sacked workers exercising their legal rights.
‘Today our national organising official was arrested for a public order offence when he went to ensure there were a prescribed number of 20 protesters penned in on a traffic island.
‘He is in custody in Hull police station and the video footage that he took of all this morning’s events have been confiscated by the police.
‘GMB will challenge any charge in the courts, we will use the video footage of the events.
‘GMB is preparing a complaint to the Police Complaints Authority, in relation to the provocative and overbearing policing of this dispute.’
