2ND UPDATE:Several 100 Contractors At UK Pwr Plants In Walkout
20 June 2009 - 1:03AM
Dow Jones News
Several hundred contract workers at power stations across the
U.K. downed tools Friday or continued unofficial strike action in
support of workers at oil major Total SA's (TOT) Lindsey oil
refinery in northern England, utility companies and contractors
said.
However, no staff from the utility companies were involved in
the strikes and operations at all the sites was unaffected, the
companies said.
Over 400 contract workers at three of RWE AG's (RWE.XE) U.K.
power stations walked out Friday, the German utility's U.K. unit
RWE npower said.
Around 300 contractors, who work on either construction or
maintenance projects at RWE npower's Aberthaw power station in
Wales and around 60 contractors working on maintenance at Didcot A
power plant in southeast England walked out earlier Friday, the
company said in an emailed statement.
A spokeswoman for contractor Alstom said between 60 to 90
scaffolders were in the second day of a walkout at RWE npower's
Staythorpe power station in northern England.
A number of workers at British Energy's Hinkley Point B nuclear
power station also walked out Friday morning, but operations at the
site are continuing as normal, according to a spokeswoman for
British Energy, the U.K. nuclear unit of France's Electricite de
France SA (EDF.FR).
Around 150 contractors for routine maintenance work at E.ON AG's
(EOAN.XE) Ratcliffe power plant in northeast England are out for a
second day following a walkout Thursday, said a spokeswoman from
the company's U.K. subsidiary E.ON U.K.
Meanwhile, contractors from EDF Energy's Cottam plant in
northeast England have returned to work, a spokeswoman said.
Contractor Doosan Babcock said in a statement a "small number"
of its employees are participating in unofficial action at a small
number of sites where it operates. Doosan Babcock didn't name the
sites or say how many contract workers were involved.
Earlier Friday, Total said it had terminated the contracts of
647 contract workers at the Lindsey refinery following unofficial
strike action.
The strikes started at the 200,000 barrels-a-day refinery last
week following a dispute with a subcontractor over 51 layoffs.
-By Selina Williams, Dow Jones Newswires +44 207 842 9262;
selina.williams@dowjones.com