Betrayal of British workers
Angry builders yesterday protested against a move to use foreign labour on a major British construction project.
Up to 200 jobs on a new power station in the Midlands are destined for Spanish workers, unions claim.[>
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It follows growing concerns that the vast majority of new vacancies created in Britain in recent years have gone to migrant workers, as the country faces its highest level of unemployment for 17 years.[>
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Jobless builders joined a Unite union protest at the site of the new power station at Staythorpe near Newark in Nottinghamshire yesterday. They called for the work to go to skilled construction workers in the Trent Valley.[>
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French construction firm Alstom was contracted by German-based power giant RWE to build the gas-fired power station. Alstom is using two Spanish contractors – Montpressa and FMM – on the project. They are understood to have lined up Spanish workers for jobs.[>
I did think that in the short to medium term there would be a number of jobs created, particularly in construction
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Patrick Mercer, Tory MP for Newark, was yesterday planning to meet company bosses to raise concerns about the use of migrant labour. He said: “I did think that in the short to medium term there would be a number of jobs created, particularly in construction. [>
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“Anything that threatens the vast majority of those jobs going to local people flies in the face of what I understood.”[>
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Hundreds of protesters at the site of the £850million project yesterday condemned the deal as a betrayal of Gordon Brown’s claim when he became Prime Minister last year that he wanted to promote British jobs for British workers.[>
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Plate-fitter Trevor Tacey, 58, has been out of work since August. He said: “I’ve been working in this industry all my life. My father worked in it for 20 years, and my son was also hoping to come into it as an apprentice, though it doesn’t look like that will happen now.[>
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“I’ve been waiting seven years for this project to begin. I could have walked to work, but instead they’re going to fly in workers from Poland or Spain.[>
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“It was a real kick in the teeth. Gordon Brown said: ‘British jobs for British workers’. We feel contempt for that statement and shock and anger for what is happening.”[>
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Alstom said a small number of its 14 sub-contractors were not British, and employed both local and overseas workers. But it would not say how many overseas staff were likely to be involved in the project.[>
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Derek Simpson of Unite said the move was scandalous. He said: “The country is in the grip of a credit crunch and the construction industry is one of the worst-hit sectors.[>
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“There are qualified people in the local area who are out of work and ready and willing to do the job.”[>
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Unite said Alstom and energy giant RWE, which will run the power station, should put pressure on sub-contractors to give British workers a fair chance of employment on the project. [>
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“The UK needs to upgrade and build new power stations and there are huge opportunities to create thousands of well-paid and highly skilled jobs,” Mr Simpson said.[>
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“It will be a disgrace if UK workers are shut out from building their own power stations.”[>
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The union said Montpressa and FMM used a site meeting earlier this month to reveal that foreign labour would be used for most of the project. FMM told union officials that because they had no direct employees themselves, they would supply their workers directly from abroad.[>
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Unite said: “This would mean that there would be no consideration given to employing local construction workers with years of experience in building power stations throughout the Trent Valley. The national agreement for construction workers, of which both the employers and trade unions are signatories, states that consideration should be given to available local labour.”[>
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A spokesman for Alstom said last night: “Our priority lies in ensuring we build and deliver a safe, effective power station by engaging companies and personnel with the appropriate skills and expertise necessary for this major project. [>
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“Alstom today employs just over 700 people at Staythorpe. Of these, the overwhelming majority, more than 90 per cent, are UK nationals.[>
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“Two out of our 14 sub contractors at Staythorpe are non-UK companies and will source some employees from both the UK and other EU countries for a specific role fitting parts of the station.[>
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“We actively encourage our sub-contractors to employ UK and local skills to ensure people have an equal opportunity to gain employment on our sites and encourage the recruitment of local workers to deliver the skills we need.”[>
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When Mr Brown became Prime Minister last year, he vowed to promote “British jobs for British workers”. The Government has introduced tougher skill tests for migrant workers coming to the UK from outside the EU. But Spanish builders imported for the Newark project will not be affected because of EU freedom of movement rules.[>
