Ripples of resistance as North Sea workers strike

Unite union members on the Beryl Piper offshore rig in the north sea (Picture: Unite Offshore on Facebook)

Hundreds of offshore workers struck for 48 hours last week in the latest round of action in an ongoing pay revolt.

The Unite union said about 850 people employed by Stork and Sparrows across several installations were joining the 48-hour stoppage. They were joined by a number of workers from the RMT union at Stork.

Initially 1,650 workers were due to take part, but workers from one offshore services contractor say the union called off their strike for negotiations. It follows similar strikes in April and May.

Unite said “About 850 Unite offshore members employed by Stork and Sparrows will take part in the 48-hour strike action to begin on 1 June. Negotiations remain ongoing with the companies involved in these offshore disputes.

“Unite can confirm that its members employed by Bilfinger will not be participating in the current round of strike action due to developments in negotiations.” RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said, “Our members have had enough of their employer not taking their pay claim and other outstanding issues seriously. In fact, the employer tried to use anti-trade union laws to challenge our original strike ballot.”

Unions claim they had been led to believe the employers were prepared to make an improved offer. But nothing in writing emerged. 

The long-term dispute is over pay, rotas and other conditions, in particular time spent onshore.  It started with a wave of unofficial walkouts. But instead of the official union involvement pulling everything together, it has instead slowed the process down and led to separate deals and offers.

Now that has included calling off strikes on the basis of the level of negotiations offered. This is at best a recipe to leave some workers behind, at worst it will grind the dispute to slow defeat. Workers will also be on strike this week again for 48 hours from Thursday until Saturday. But there is an urgent need to escalate.