Strike at Cottam power station (Notts)
Briefly... Austrian contractors, SFL, supply cheap Hungarian labour to power station desulphurization construction project.
Prevented from mixing with British construction workers on the site. One Hungarian worker seeks out British union steward. Seen talking. Called into contractors’ office … sent back to Hungary…(I think he must have been threatened, don’t know quite how).
The Hungarian, Barnabas, makes his way back to UK. No funds … has to walk eight miles to the power station where he beds down and waits to see British unionized workers. They find out about the intimidation and the earnings paid to Hungarian workers (six Euros an hour for heavy construction work). They strike demanding that Hungarian workers should be paid the same.
They are, I believe, now sacked and have been on strike for about 10 days.
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Solidarity Picket
The striking workers at Cottam are planning to hold a solidarity picket on Tuesday (7th March) to coincide with a meeting with management that same day. The picket is likely to start early (7am) and all are encouraged to attend - please bring union banners and messages of support.
This is an increasingly important dispute. The strikers have been visited by workers from the Wembley construction site amongst others. The specialist nature of the work done at the plant in Cottam means that people working on that site often work in other construction sites around the country - there is a network of construction workers aware of what's happened at Cottam and they're not pleased.