900 Sellafield staff joined wildcat strike

THOUSANDS of people across England and Wales, including 900 contract staff at Sellafield in Cumbria, joined protests in support of 647 oil refinery construction staff sacked for staging unofficial strikes.

Staff at Fiddlers Ferry power station in Widnes and contract maintenance employees at the Shell Stanlow Refinery in Ellesmere Port, also joined the protests yesterday  in support of the sacked workers at the Lindsey plant in North Lincolnshire.

The wildcat strikes involved about 3,000 people nationwide, and further action at Lindsey was planned for today, although if it was not known whether workersin other parts of the country were continuing their protests.

The Lindsey workers first withdrew their labour on 11 June in protest at a sub-contractor axing 51 jobs while another employer on the site was hiring people.

Last week, oil giant Total announced it had dismissed 647 construction workers following the unofficial strikes.

Trade union activists have said they expect thousands more people to take action in the coming days.

So far there has been no disruption to  energy supply because none of the strikers are esponsible for the operation of a power plant.  However, there are fears that other workers may strike in sympathy with the Lindsey contractors.