Refinery strikers vote on 50% deal

12 April 2012

Strikers who walked out in a bitter protest over the use of foreign labour are to be advised to end their wildcat action after unions were offered 50% of jobs to UK workers.

Staff from the Lindsey Oil Refinery in North Lincolnshire are to meet union officials on Thursday morning to vote on the proposal.

Stewards are recommending that those involved in the action go back to work.

Tony Ryan, from the strike committee, told hundreds of protesters at Total's Lindsey site that they had been given 102 new jobs for a minimum of nine weeks.

But union officials still had to discuss a couple of issues before the deal was finalised.

"We've made significant progress," Mr Ryan said. "We've been offered what we went in for, really, which is 50/50.

He continued: "We've got to vote on what's been proposed."

Mr Ryan added: "The stewards' recommendation tomorrow will be for the lads to return to work."

Details of the deal, first disclosed by the Press Association last night, will be put to another mass meeting of workers at Immingham on Thursday morning. It is understood that no Italian workers would lose their jobs under the agreement, which will see UK workers offered just over half the jobs on the contract.

Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, said: "We are pleased that our grievances are beginning to be recognised. There is still some way to go but at least people are beginning to understand what we have been saying."

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