Refinery workers plan Paris demo

Lindsey contractors have claimed support is growing in other industries

Striking oil refinery workers are to stage a demonstration outside the Paris headquarters of energy supplier Total.

Announcement of the demo, planned for next week, came as talks were due to resume over the jobs row at the Lindsey oil refinery in North Lincolnshire.

Almost 650 workers were sacked after withdrawing labour because of job cuts.

Unions are demanding reinstatement of the Lindsey workers, and guarantees of no victimisation of activists involved in sympathy strikes.

The GMB said it planned to take two coach-loads of Lindsey workers to Paris next week to stage a protest outside the head office of Total, which owns the refinery.

Negotiations with contractors and Total were adjourned after five hours on Tuesday. They are due to resume in Manchester on Thursday afternoon.

Some 4,000 power station and oil or gas terminal workers have been striking.

Sites hit have included the Drax power station in Selby, Yorkshire, along with others in Milford Haven, west Wales, Longannet in Fife and on Teesside.

Contractors at Sellafield in Cumbria are to meet to decide whether to continue wildcat strike action after workers walked out of the site.

More than 900 workers initially withdrew labour at the nuclear reprocessing plant, but the majority returned to work on Wednesday, although 100 did later walk out again.

However, a further 150 workers ignored union advice not to walk out on Thursday and also left. A further meeting now is scheduled for Friday morning.

Operations 'unaffected'

The Lindsey workers first withdrew their labour on 11 June in protest at a sub-contractor axing 51 jobs while another employer on the site was hiring people.

Just over a week later, Total announced that 647 construction workers had been sacked for taking part in unofficial strikes.

Among the unions' demands are the provision of jobs for the 51 workers originally laid off.

A spokeswoman for the GMB union said some progress had been made during Tuesday's talks but that "significant hurdles" remained.

A spokesman for the South Hook liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Milford Haven, west Wales, said that despite strike action, normal operations remain unaffected.

"Approximately 230 of the contract construction workforce working on the build of phase two at the South Hook terminal near Milford Haven walked off site for the third consecutive day," he added.

The GMB has launched a £100,000 hardship fund to support strikers.

It is pressing ahead with a national ballot of thousands of workers in the industry in a long-running dispute over jobs and conditions.

Leader Paul Kenny said the start of the ballot was about a week away. Another union, Unite, is also planning a national ballot of its members.