Energy workers act against the war

Workers at National Grid’s terminal on the Isle of Grain, Kent, stopped the landing of a consignment of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the start of March. The workers, members of Unison, were facing the prospect of unloading the LNG because of a loophole in the Government’s new ban on Russian shipping: the ban does not extend to Russian cargo.

The union members could fall foul of the anti-union laws that ban political strikes if they refused to unload the cargo, and potentially lose their jobs.

As the Boris Vilkitsky, the ship carrying the LNG, approached Grain, Unison officials bought time for the branch by issuing a press release calling on the Government to clarify its position.

The attention provoked by that press release persuaded someone that the ship should not dock at Grain, and the ship was diverted. It ultimately docked in Brittany in France, where it was greeted by a Greenpeace inflatable carrying a banner that said “Fossil Fuels War”.

The move to boycott the Boris Vilkitsky came strongly from rank and file union members. Their branch chair Peter Read told the Unison press team: “Some of them were quite passionate about it and stated that there was no way they were going to be doing anything to unload the ship.”

Read polled branch members and found that two-thirds were prepared reluctantly to unload the gas but they also said “I would do it under duress and be uncomfortable about doing it …”, while a third of members replied: “I don’t care what the consequences are, I’m not doing it.”

To be clear, these workers were ready to make a radical gesture of self-sacrifice in order to protest against Putin’s war on Ukraine.

Unison later made the episode sound far from radical: “The union’s action had averted the possible risks to security at and around the site from protests and press descending en masse, together with reputational damage.” But this was, nevertheless, a radical protest.

The Isle of Grain comes under Medway Council in a less affluent part of Kent. It has a Conservative council and Conservative MPs and voted for Brexit. The Boris Vilkitsky episode is a welcome and precious example of workers’ independent organisation and readiness to show international solidarity.

The leader of the local Labour group, Vince Maple, told Kent Online: “Clearly workers here in Medway and particularly on the Isle of Grain want to show solidarity and support to Ukraine…

“Any stop of an amount of electric or gas will have an impact... I think there has to be a recognition by all of us that sanctions of any form will have an impact — but most people will be willing to make these sacrifices to show support and solidarity for Ukraine.” Whatever about that, workers taking action against Russian aggression in the ways that they can certainly points to a better future. We must build on that.

Unison organises a number of workers in the formerly publicly owned energy utilities. They have discussed energy policy, including issues of a just transition and improving energy-efficiency of homes, at their sector conferences. This is an important group of workers for socialist environmentalists to engage with.