Stanlow oil refinery targeted in strike action by 450 construction workers
A Cheshire oil refinery which makes fuel for vehicles and aircraft could be affected by strike action this week.
Essar Oil UK operates the Stanlow refinery and will be hit in action by around 450 Unite the Union members.
The staff are employed by several contractors at the Cheshire site and will begin pay strikes this week.
The construction workers, whose pay is set by the National Agreement for the Engineering Construction Industry (NAECI), are striking over their employers’ refusal to raise bonus payments. Under NAECI, these payments are negotiated on a local level.
Unite says the workers, who include scaffolders, electricians, laggers, crane drivers, welders, pipe fitters, riggers and steel erectors, have experienced years of real terms pay cuts to their hourly NAECI rates.
It said they are paid a regular bonus rate of 80p an hour, even though the refinery made operating profits of £253m during the first half of the 2023 financial year.
Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham, said: “Essar is absolutely awash with cash and its contractors at the refinery are on extremely lucrative contracts.
“It is completely unacceptable that these workers are being refused a reasonable bonus rate when there is clearly money to spare to pay them properly. Unite defends our members’ jobs, pay and conditions to the hilt and Stanlow’s workers have their union’s total backing in taking strike action.”
A continuous overtime ban, inclusive of call out and stand by, begins today, July 17. The first 48 hours of strike action commences tomorrow, July 18, with further strikes taking place on July 25 and 26, and August and 1, 2, 8 and 9. Industrial action will intensify if the dispute is not resolved, said Unite.
The strikes are expected to impact operations at the Stanlow refinery, the UK’s second largest. Stanlow supplies 16% of the UK’s road fuels and is a major producer of aviation fuel.
The workers are employed by Altrad, Babcock, Bilfinger, Hutchinson Engineering, Pump Supply & Repair Group, Sarens and Wood Group.
Unite regional officer, Lee Brennan, said: “Over the last five years, our members’ wages have not kept pace with the cost of living.
“This has been made worse by the fact that the NAECI pay award for this year has resulted in a substantial real terms pay cut for the highly skilled and essential workforce based at Essar. The employers and Essar can absolutely afford to pay a fair bonus rate and that is what needs to happen.”
Essar Oil UK has been contacted for comment.
