Contractors working on a number of vital sites across the country, many linked to the energy industry, are set to walk out in wildcat actions again on the morning of Wednesday 24th August.
The dispute over pay for workers covered by the National Agreement for the Engineering Construction Industry (NAECI) has already seen work stoppages take place at a number of high-profile sites on the morning of August 10th, with the 24th being named as the next day of action.
Due to the unofficial nature of the action, organised directly by workers themselves without going through formal union structures, there’s been little coverage of this important dispute beyond a few articles in places such as Freedom News and Open Democracy, and what media coverage there has been has often portrayed the actions as being local disputes rather than a nationally coordinated action.
One source involved in construction organising estimated that 29 or 30 sites took part in the last round of action. Confirmed reports show that action took place at the Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland, a chemical plant in Wilton, Teesside, the Humber refinery near Grimsby, the Valero refinery in Pembrokeshire, Drax power station near Selby, Mossmorran petrochemical plant near Fife, and Fawley oil refinery in Hampshire. Any escalation of action at these sites could shut down a huge amount of the UK’s power supply.
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