Alistair Tice, Yorkshire Socialist Party
Production at Lindsey Oil Refinery near Immingham in North East Lincolnshire has ended. The refinery, owned by Prax Group, a trading name of State Oil, has been in the hands of the Insolvency Service for the last two months because the billionaire owners have not paid £250 million in taxes. They did pay themselves £3.65 million in dividends last year, despite £22.5 million losses!
Around 1,000 workers and contractors will lose their jobs, with all the knock-on effects to the local, already depressed, economy. Around 440 workers are being kept on till October to wind the refinery down safely.
Unite, the main trade union at the site, organised a midday protest rally outside Grimsby Town Hall on 24 July, attended by around 250 workers. Unfortunately, the union invited local Tory MP Martin Vickers and newly elected Reform mayor of Greater Lincolnshire Andrea Jenkins to speak. Both blamed the inaction of the Labour government and “Net Zero religion” for the closure, which gained a certain echo from the crowd.
By far the biggest cheers and applause though, were for Joe Gibbins, secretary of Hull Trades Council, who brought solidarity greetings from across the River Humber. Joe attacked the Tories for having destroyed so many local industries like the docks and steel, and called for a workers’ transition to green energy to safeguard jobs whilst protecting the environment. He demanded that the government step in, not to find another billionaire asset stripper, but to nationalise the plant as the only way to save jobs. Joe concluded by saying that Hull TUC is working with other trades councils to help set up a new party to represent the working class.
The pro-big business Labour government has already taken action under pressure to save jobs. With a special parliamentary session on a Saturday, the government took control of nearby Scunthorpe steelworks to keep it running. The Labour government effectively nationalised the plant to stop its private owners from shutting it down. With concerted workers’ action, the government could be pushed to take measures to save Lindsey Oil Refinery.
Strike action in 2009, in which Socialist Party member Keith Gibson played a leading role, defeated plans to make hundreds of redundancies. Then Labour prime minister Gordon Brown sought to sew divisions between workers at Lindsey, calling for “British jobs for British workers”. Feeling emboldened, the far-right British National Party even attempted to attend picket lines, quickly given short shrift by the workers. But it was united workers’ solidarity and fighting militant action that won. (see ‘Lindsey oil refinery strike deal’ at socialistparty.org.uk) Now Reform UK politicians are presenting themselves as fighting to save jobs, at the same time as Reform-led councils are themselves carrying out brutal cuts on our public services. Unite should be demanding nationalisation to save jobs, and be taking steps to establishing a working-class political force to fight for it. There can be no truck with capitalist politicians like those of the Tories, Reform or Starmer’s Labour, who offer no solutions to the jobs threat at Lindsey.
