“No snacks at Drax” adorned placards at picket lines outside Drax power station as catering workers, employed by contractor Baxter-Storey, picketed the site.
Workers have begun two weeks of strike action, which have seen the cancellation of Christmas dinners and reports of empty vending machines and out-of-date sandwiches on site.
Members of Unite, the workers are fighting to win union recognition from the company, but also to win a pay rise to keep up with the spiralling inflation of the last year. The company pays the ‘real living wage’, but only brings it in six months after the rate has been set, keeping workers in poverty pay.
Yet Baxter-Storey made £25 million profit in 2022, and Drax made a whopping £731 million!
Workers in the first week of the strike have braved freezing temperatures and driving rain. As one picket explained: “We’re tough cookies – we’ll be out next week and for further action if we need to.”
Iain Dalton, Yorkshire Socialist Party
