Dave Walsh, Liverpool Socialist Party
Workers at Orsted Energy, a multinational sustainable energy company, have walked out in the first of two 48-hour strikes after receiving a derisory 3.5% pay offer from the Danish company. In April this year, it reported profits of £664 million.
The 96 nationwide RMT union members are also angry that management walked away from talks to sign a collective bargaining agreement with Prospect union, despite the fact that it has no members there.
I visited the picket line at the Birkenhead site where 19 highly skilled technicians are employed in the offshore windfarm energy sector. They work on two crew boats which sail from Seacombe to the Burbo Bank every day to carry out vital maintenance work on the turbines.
They are not just angry with their employers but with the whole privatised energy sector which exploits workers and customers alike, and profits from their misery. RMT members at Orsted Energy have also voted overwhelmingly for industrial action over the victimisation of a fellow worker at the Barrow-in-Furness site.
