—ON THE PICKET LINE—

Maggie Trowe, Editor

 

North Sea oil and gas workers hold strikes over cuts in jobs, pay

LONDON — Some 400 workers on seven Royal Dutch Shell oil and gas rigs in the North Sea have taken sit-down strike action to protest wage and job cuts and deteriorating conditions. These were the first strike actions on North Sea rigs in three decades.

The workers, members of the Unite and RMT unions, are employees of Wood Group, a maintenance and construction contractor. They organized a 24-hour stoppage July 26 and a 48-hour strike Aug. 4-5. A planned three-week walkout was called off after the employers agreed to talks.

More than 98 percent of the unionists voted for action. They have protested outside Shell and Wood Group offices here, in Manchester and in Aberdeen. Unions around the world have sent messages of support.

The workers are protesting the third in a series of cuts to jobs, pay and conditions in the last two years, as companies drive to make workers pay for the steep drop in oil and gas prices. Unemployment claims in Aberdeen, the center of the U.K.’s oil and gas industry in the North Sea, have more than doubled since the end of 2014.

Wood Group recently imposed a new work schedule: three weeks on, three off, instead of two on, three off. This amounts to working five extra weeks per year with no increase in pay, and allowed the company to cut the workforce by 20 percent. On the rigs, working a 12-hour shift every day is the norm.

Speaking anonymously to the industry publication Energy Voice, one worker estimated Wood Group’s latest demands would cut his overall pay 30 percent. “They’re cutting our sickness benefits, holidays,” he added. “We’re working in a very dangerous environment. … I do a lot of safety work offshore and I genuinely believe that it is a disaster waiting to happen.”

Energy Voice quoted a Wood Group spokeswoman who said, “Our employees’ safety and welfare is our priority.”

— Jonathan Silberman

Teamster bus drivers and aides in Illinois strike for first contract

MINOOKA, Ill. — Bus drivers and aides, members of Teamsters Local 179, went on strike against Minooka School Districts 111 and 201 Aug. 18, just after the school year began in this town of 11,000 southwest of Chicago.

“We need benefits and overtime pay,” John Keese told the Militant. “We have no insurance. Safety is also an issue, as the buses are overcrowded, with as many as 100 students on a bus rated for 71.”

“This is the first contract for the 135 drivers and aides here,” said Tina Nall, a driver for six years. “We won the union last December and began negotiating our first contract in February.”

“This strike isn’t just about us,” she continued. “It’s about growing the labor movement. Unfortunately, we have too many union members crossing the line.”

Strikers explained that over the past three years maintenance has deteriorated. When state inspectors “red flag” a bus as unsafe, it isn’t taken out of service.

Aides haven’t gotten a raise in seven years, Cheryl Mathias said. “We earn $11.58 an hour on a five-hour split shift.”

Many drivers passing by honked their horns in support.

The school district is using bus mechanics as drivers, a member of the union negotiating team said.

— Dan Fein