UPDATE: Contract Workers Back At UK Energy Plants After Deal
21 May 2009 - 11:02PM
Dow Jones News
Contract workers who staged walkouts at a number of U.K. energy
plants this week are returning to work Thursday, following a deal
to withdraw 40 non-U.K. workers from a project at South Hook
liquified natural gas terminal in Wales. Netherlands-based
industrial services company Hertel has agreed to withdraw the
foreign labor after U.K. workers demanded it offer the jobs to
local people.
The dispute at South Hook, in Milford Haven, Wales, Europe's
biggest LNG terminal, triggered walkouts by hundreds of contract
workers across other U.K. energy facilities Tuesday and Wednesday,
echoing similar protests in January and February.
"After lengthy negotiations between the company and GMB [union],
a framework has been reached which will fully restore the written
agreement on the site regarding the use of local labor," said Paul
Kenny, GMB general secretary, on the unofficial dispute at South
Hook.
Meanwhile, ConocoPhillips (COP) spokeswoman Nina Krogh-Nielsen
confirmed that the contract workforce at the 221,000 barrel-a-day
Humber refinery in eastern England had also returned to work and
that previous action hadn't effected refinery operations.
Wendy Goldsworthy, spokeswoman for Dragon LNG terminal in Wales,
said in an e-mailed statement to Dow Jones Newswires that its
contract workers were back at their posts Thursday.
Total SA's (TOT) spokesman at the Lindsey refinery in eastern
England, Iain Hutchison, said a meeting earlier Thursday concluded
in an agreement that their workers will return to work Friday.
Royal Dutch Shell's (RDSB) spokeswoman for the Stanlow refinery
in northwest England, Sally Hepton, said: "All workers have been
back to work since yesterday [Wednesday], no new developments,
operations running as normal." The Stanlow contract workers staged
a walkout Tuesday.
Most of the contractors working at RWE AG's (RWE.XE) Aberthaw
power station in Wales have also returned to work Thursday, the
company said.
Company Web site: http://www.conocophillips.co.uk
Company Web site: http://www.southhooklng.co.uk
Company Web site: http://www.dragonlng.co.uk
Company Web site: http://www.total.co.uk
Company Web site: http://www.dragonlng.co.uk
Company Web site: http://www.shell.co.uk
Company Web site: http://www.scottish-southern.co.uk
-By Angela Henshall and Lananh Nguyen, Dow Jones Newswires; +44
(0)20 7842 9285; angela.henshall@dowjones.com (Reza Amanat and
Selina Williams contributed to this story.)