Workers plan an unofficial strike in the North Sea

Stork company workers are important for North Sea production (Picture: stork.com)

North Sea oil and gas workers are set to take unofficial strikes on Thursday, the second in a series of wildcat strikes. And oil bosses are already worried about the prospect of workers’ action.

Rank and file workers are calling for offshore crew to down tools at 1pm on 8 September. The strikes will involve contractors employed by energy services firms Wood, Bilfinger and Stork and may spread beyond the 16 platforms that struck unofficially in May.

A group to coordinate the strikes has been set up. They are angry with the current Energy Services Agreement (ESA) wages body, given the surge in oil and gas prices and company profits. It was after that the May action that Bilfinger joined the ESA.

The Offshore Oil and Gas Workers Strike Committee said, “The collapse of the Offshore Contractors Association (OCA) was nothing but a power grab by the oil companies.

“They decimated our terms and conditions then dressed up the new terms under the ESA as a game changer. Total and utter rubbish.”

The ESA is an agreement on minimum pay and conditions covering 5,000 offshore workers agreed between the GMB, Unite and the RMT unions and 14 employers. Its purpose is to maintain “stability and certainty on a substantive cost element for the industry and investors”.

Workers were offered a 3 percent pay rise from July. The statement added, “Since 2001 our wages have been hit extremely hard. We are currently around 22-23 percent behind inflation with our wage.

“We have had derisory pay offers which give us nothing but the equivalent of a hard slap in the face.”

Bilfinger, Stork and Wood are service companies that provide workers to the oil giants who run the platforms. It includes trades like scaffolders, painters, deckcrew and insulators among others.

The action is unofficial. The workers’ statement continued, “Our unions say they haven’t got the numbers currently to ballot for strike. We say that’s rubbish as the whole North Sea are absolutely livid at our treatment. 

“The wildcat strikes that are being talked about and planned are a result of years of inaction from the unions and our employers and have made us feel like we can only get things done by taking things into our own hands. 

“We provide the energy to keep everyone’s lights on yet seem to be the last to have our say. The time for action is now.”

One offshore worker told Socialist Worker, “Potentially this will be bigger than last time. There wouldn’t normally be two of these crew companies on the same platforms as they are competitors. That means the strike could spread to more places than in May and involve more trades where they are on the same platforms, so having a bigger impact.”

Socialist Worker is aware that North Sea operators are nervous that crew change flights won’t be allowed to land as deck crew won’t facilitate them, This can cause serious backlogs. Bosses are scared the deck crew won’t land helicopters and are changing their usual staffing rotas because of it.

Other groups of platform workers including offshore drilling and contract maintenance workers have also rejected a pay offer of 5 percent.

The unofficial action has the potential to be the serious “wage revolution” the workers have called for.