Nick Chaffey, Southampton Socialist Party
26 canteen workers responsible for feeding the vast 2,500 workforce at Fawley oil refinery, the largest refinery in Britain, are striking against a below-inflation pay offer from their employer Compass.
While the lowest-paid workers on site face a pay cut, the employers make colossal profits, in excess of £1 billion in the last six months. Not only do these women workers, members of Unite the Union, keep the refinery fed, they do so in dangerous conditions, having to wear safety clothing while working in particular areas of the site. But there is no extra payment for this.
While Compass management refuses to negotiate and bullies its canteen workers with threats of redundancies, the Fawley workforce has begun a solidarity boycott of canteen and vending machines.
Fawley refinery, owned by ExxonMobil, makes huge profits. It has been the scene of other strikes recently when contractors successfully took action for the full payment of their bonus. This industry provides essential resources to the economy but in the hands of private corporations the only motive is profit – every penny of it squeezed from the labour of its increasingly low-paid workforce, as wages fall and the cost-of-living climbs.
National refinery capacity is in crisis with Grangemouth gone and Lindsey refinery under threat of closure. Fawley will be one of four remaining. A national campaign on the future of oil refineries by all trade unions needs to address the pay and conditions of all workers and fight for nationalisation to secure the future of all jobs.
On the basis of nationalisation, this industry could supply cheap energy and products for society rather than super-profits for a handful of corporate shareholders, as well as securing permanent, well-paid jobs for all who work in the industry. Under democratic workers’ control and management, the future of the industry could ensure the rapid transition to renewable energy while protecting all jobs for the future.
