‘WE say to the UK government today we will not allow you to do this, we do not trust you and we will fight against you,’ Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham told a mass rally of Lindsey Oil Refinery workers from North Lincolnshire outside the Houses of Parliament yesterday.
Well over 100 workers held a powerful rally on College Green, opposite the House of Commons with banners and speakers expressing determination to defeat the closure plan and the sacking of 500 full-time and 450 contracted employees.
Before the rally some of the workers spoke to News Line.
Unite member Will Payne said: ‘I am here today to try and sway any decisions being made. They are trying to make a decision and we are saying that the plant must remain open for years to come.
‘There should be more support from the government and there needs to be a change in the country because we are being sacrificed for their internal agendas and not for the benefit of the people.’
Frank Johnson said: ‘I think we should do everything in our power to keep the plant open.
‘The work has been sold down the line by the previous owners with their actions that appear to be bordering on criminal.
‘The previous owner hasn’t been held accountable and must be. We are fighting to win and are determined to do so.’
Before the speakers, as the rally was about to start, the workers took up a chant of: ‘Emergency, Emergency, Save our Refinery!’ and Union Power! Union Power!’
First speaker, Jamie Dalgetty, Chair of Unite Reps at Lindsey, told the rally: ‘I’ve been made to speak to you as the chairman. Over the past few months we’ve been tested, we’ve faced uncertainty, we’ve had unsavoury notes and there have been times it’s felt like everything has been pulled from under our feet.
‘But we are still together and that’s why we’re here, still strong and fighting.
‘Labour minister Ed Miliband has given us nothing, not even the courtesy of standing up for the workforce that has kept the country running for decades.
‘For the first time in a long time the wind is at our backs. We have a real opportunity to see Lindsey survive and to see it thrive. We know this site, we know its value, nobody knows it better than the people who have given their lives to it.’
Dan Ingrams, Unite rep, said: ‘Lindsey oil refinery has not failed. We have been failed. We are here today fighting for the survival of Lindsey oil refinery. It would be the second to close its gates under this Labour government and it must not happen.
‘Starmer and Miliband should hang their heads in shame. It’s time the UK government stepped up and took action. We will not go quietly, Save Lindsey oil refinery.’
Unite leader Sharon Graham told the rally: ‘Our union, your union, is not going to see another nail in the coffin of oil and gas workers at the altar of net zero. We will not allow it.
‘Friends, we are not going to see this under our watch. We are not going to see our nations and our regions turn into no more than working class wastelands, industries gone, one after the other.
‘So we say to the UK government today we will not allow you to do this. We do not trust you and we will fight against you.’
