Workermen down tools over foreign workers
By Blaine Williams
Workers have walked out of an oil refinery today over a dispute about foreign workers.
More than 500 contractors walked out of the Lindsey oil refinery Britain’s third largest, with a processing capacity in excess of 10 million tonnes per annum.
Workers walked out after the Italian company, handling a new arm of the refinery, apparently told workers they will no longer be hiring staff from the UK.
The Italian based company have said they will only be employing people from Portugal and Italy as they are “more skilled”.
This led to an angry reaction from the British workers who decided to walk out in protest and not return until Monday.
A spokesman for Lindsey oil refinery said the walkout will have absolutely no effect on production.
The spokesman said: “The unit is separate to the main refinery, and as such, this action has not affected the normal operation of the refinery.
“The main contractor, Jacobs is currently having discussions with the workers and union representatives. We hope the situation will be resolved as soon as possible.”
The unit the workers work on is the HDS-3 which the contractor said needs specialist personnel to work on. It also claims to already have a permanent specialise skill-force it directly employs.
The workers will be picketing the site tomorrow and Friday.
