FEATUREWood Group dispute OILSTRIKE


Unite offshore members stand together and win


On April 19 this year Aberdeen-based multinational oil and gas services company, Wood Group, were in celebratory mood. The firm announced it had retained the contract to carry out offshore maintenance and repairs on eight platforms owned by the oil and gas giant Shell – Brent Alpha, Brent Bravo, Brent Charlie, Brent Delta (since decommissioned), Nelson, Gannet, Curlew, and Shearwater.


But it soon became apparent it was not a good news day for everyone. “I attended a meeting at Wood Group that day where they told us they’d retained the contract,” recalls Unite regional officer John Boland. “But then it became clear they wanted redundancies and cuts to pay, terms, conditions, sick pay – everything you could think of.


“They’d sold their soul to get that contract. It was the worst set of proposals I’d seen in all the time I’ve been doing this.”


At the core was the level of cuts to base pay and allowances – effectively snatching up to 30 per cent from workers’ wage packets. Life insurance, medical cover, travel allowances, and even train fares were also slashed.


Unite believes that this was the day the five month long dispute between Wood Group and the trade unions began.


From the outset Unite ensured members were fully involved, with John and others working hard to recruit new members, reps and get organised. The effort paid off


with 10 shop stewards across the eight platforms. Over the next weeks the situation deteriorated. Unite submitted a failure to agree with the employer, and moved towards a ballot for strike action. On July 13, the definitive result was announced – 99.1 per cent had voted for strike action, and 99.5 per cent for action short of a strike.


RMT who also had members affected, but are not recognised, ran a ballot and had a similar result. And so the first offshore strike in the North Sea for nearly 30 years was on.


Industrial action started on July 25 with an overtime ban, followed by a 24-hour stoppage the next day.


“We realised there was a lot of tension offshore,” says John. “The overtime ban gave more people a chance to take part in the industrial action, even if they were not on shift for the day of the strike.”


There was massive media interest from all over the world, but with the added difficulty of maintaining


good


communication links with members offshore, it wasn’t easy.


“It’s not like a normal dispute where you can just walk onto the site and have a meeting with the workforce and the shop stewards, and where the media can film a picket line,” explains John.


“We had a demo outside the Wood Group building – but we also got photos


10 uniteWORKS Autumn 2016


taken of the guys on strike and shared those with the media. We had seven different platforms, with people on different shifts, but we used email and phones calls, and teleconferencing – which worked really well.”


Unite received solidarity messages from around the world, and the support of the mariners’ union Nautilus and pilots’ union Balpa, when Shell started trying to bring in new helicopter landing officers.


A series of short three-hour stoppages followed, and then a 48-hour strike on August 4 and 5.


“That meant we were able to affect the planned maintenance shutdowns on Brent Charlie, Curlew and Nelson. One of the things said during the dispute was that we weren’t able to affect production. Well, this definitely did.


“We think extending the shutdowns could have cost Shell £6m to £10m across the three platforms. At Brent Charlie they had to bring a barge a day early, and that alone cost them £250,000.”


John adds, “We were trying to put pressure on Shell, because – at that time – Wood Group just didn’t want to talk to us.”


And it worked. Unite was invited to start talks with senior Wood Group management. During the negotiations, the company agreed not to implement any changes, and the union agreed to suspend industrial action. After three weeks of


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