Official strike threat over British jobs

Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, has raised the stakes over the use of foreign site labour by indicating that he is ready to support official strike action in defense of jobs for the domestic workforce.

Kenny said his union's Central Executive Committee has called a meeting of shop stewards and officers to consider ways in which GMB members can defend their terms and conditions on engineering construction sites and "stop employers refusing even to consider employing them."

He continued: "These members have been let down by employers, by the UK Government, by Acas, by the EU Commission and the European Court. They need to know how they can best defend themselves with the assistance of the union.

"The CEC has made it clear that it will sanction an official strike ballot should that be the route this meeting decides to go."

The fresh strike threat comes hard on the heels of a report by the Acas arbitration service on the dispute and wildcat action at the Lindsey oil refinery site. The report found that there was no evidence of the contactors there having broken any law or failing to follow the sector's national agreement.