there was panic buying last weekend
Scotland: oil refinery strike is still on despite the government and industry counter-campaign
Hey, does anyone has a tip where I could find actualized information about this strike? I´m also an oil worker (in brasil) and I´m trying to divulgate it a bit around here.
could send mail to ogrc_br [AT] yahoo.com
Admin - email broken so it doesn't get attacked by spammers
Hi Comuna:
The strike started this morning (Sunday) and will carry on until tomorrow evening, but apparently it will take "weeks" to reactivate the plant again. It's the only oil refinery in Scotland and also provides for much of northern England so the state are shipping in extra reserves to attempt to break it by shipping fuel from mainland Europe: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7370158.stm
Keep on checking here and http://news.bbc.co.uk I reckon!
Someone elsewhere asked if this was a lock-out. I don't think it's that but it's a provocation in the sense that all attacks on the working class today are a provocation.
Listening to the workers last night, there are clear echoes of what workers in France and Germany have been saying about the question of the pension: they were explicitly talking about this as a fight for their conditions, the future and a fight for the younger generation.
The unions will try to keep a very tight control on this strike but if it goes on there is potential for it to spread.
It would be interesting to see what the unions are doing are other refineries, because workers there must be similarly affected. Final salary pensions are falling fast and being gradually replaced by non-guaranteed schemes (schemes being the appropriate word). The union will try to negotiate a graceful defeat here - they won't stick to the workers demand of a guaranteed final salary pension.
I think that this is an important strike in a vital industry that is a clear expression of solidarity withing the working class. The multi-millioniare boss of Ineos was incredulous: 'they're striking for people who are on the payroll yet" or words to that effect.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7368318.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7369043.stm
Is there actually "panic buying" in Scotland over this? And doesn't this kinda disprove the whole post-industrial "we're all consumers" arguments being made in some parts of the forum? Interesting to see how this will pan out...