Wildcat strikes spread to other oil refineries
As we reported just a few days ago, an unofficial strike at the Lindsey oil refinery has now spread to other areas of the country. The initial unofficial strike action came about when over 50 redundancies were announced at one of the subcontractors operating from the Lindsey oil refinery, and despite union intervention the dispute is still rolling on.
At a time when the UK economy is starting to show signs of stabilising there are concerns that prolonged industrial action could damage the already fragile confidence in the economy and lead to further possible strike action. While this particular issue does not appear to be directly related to foreign workers moving to the UK, it is known that many unions and union members are concerned about EU regulations allowing European workers to come to the UK and take advantage of the employment market.
On the wider subject of unemployment, recent figures from the government show an increase to 2.26 million with expectations that the figure will rise well above 3 million over the next 12 months. If anything the potential friction between employers and employees could get very much worse before it gets better.
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