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FUEL supplies could be hit this spring, Unite warned today after workers at Exxon’s Fawley refinery on Britain’s south coast were balloted for strike action over an “insulting” pay offer.
The full industrial action ballot, affecting 100 critical safety workers at the giant Hampshire plant, opened today.
Walkouts could follow in April if a majority vote in favour, the industrial union said.
Unite is demanding a one-year pay rise that meets inflation after on-site workers employed by contractors Trant Engineering Limited, Veolia Services and Altrad Services were “stunned” to be offered just a 2.5 per cent increase amid the spiralling cost of living.
General secretary Sharon Graham demanded that bosses take back “this insulting pay offer.” Exxon, the largest US oil and gas giant, netted an income of £6.75 billion last year.
Condemning the situation as “unacceptable,” she said: “[The workers] deserve so much than this from Exxon, which is making money from oil and gas hand over fist but is now pressurising the employers to cut our members’ wages.”
An ExxonMobil spokesperson told the Star that the company hoped Unite and the contractors can “work together to reach a swift and amicable resolution.”
