Unofficial Unions Spark Strikes in Oil Fields

On Thursday 4.8.90, the first of four 24 hour Wildcat strikes was called by oil¬field workers as they stepped up action to persuade the oil-companies, Shell and BP, and various other North Sea companies, to agree to wage increases, better safety conditions and union recognition. The action was organised by the Offshore Industry Liason Committee (OILC), an unofficial alliance of unions representing mainly contract workers in oil and gas fields in the North Sea. Unofficial wild¬cat strikes have occurred here in the past and the OILC has been calling an overtime ban for the last six months which has, by and large, been complied with. The present wave was, no doubt, precipitated in part by a lack of response to the overtime action and also the failure, in January, of talks between the employers’ organisation – the Offshore Contractors Council (OCC), and representatives of the four main unions involved in the North Sea – engineers, electricians, construction workers, and the MSF, the white collar union. The OCC is the employer’s body for about 200 companies working in the North Sea and recognizes the Unions, presumably on an individual basis, though many individual contractors do not.

The OCC response to the sit-in strike was to claim that the dispute could only be settled onshore and that workers had to either return to shore or be sacked. Dismissals duely took place with 1,000 contract workers sacked making ‘stop the sackings’ the worker’s main battle-cry. On Friday, on the Safe Gotha oil-rig, Shell resorted to a lockout. The response of Jim Fleming, a leader of the unofficial committee said “We think they want to clear the field so they can get rid of the spokesman. The rest of the workforce would then be sent back”. Representatives of the strikers said that about 1,500 were involved in the sit-ins while a further 1,500 had been taken off. Such moves would result, a week later, in new tactics which involved oilmen appearing to return to work so that they could then obey further strike calls.

Faithfully backed up by their media lackeys, an immediate campaign was launched to scare the ‘British Public’ with rising petrol prices which would apparently result. This backfired slightly as any price rise due to the oil-strike pales into insignificance against those that will result from the coup in Kuwait, inspired by the interests of Iraqi imperialism and the shady OPEC cartel. After this failed bit of black propaganda, the OCC had to resort to falling back on the usual platitudes such as ‘responsible men will follow the request to ignore the strike call’, and workers are being manipulated by ‘militants’ for ‘disruptive ends’. Dear capitalist swine, it is your useless system that creates these strikes.

Battle is declared: after 52 workers on a BP Forties field platform had been left stranded and unable to return to their accomadation platform after a bridge between the workers and an accomadation floatel had been removed without, note, normal safety procedures being observed, Ray Milne, quoted in the Independant, who was there at the time gives us a vivid impression of the situation aboard ‘We’re manning the connecting bridge to Brent Charlie 24 hours a day to stop Shell lifting it and dragging us a way from the Brent Charlie. Every evening at about 8.30 we get together in the cinema and the reps from the OILC – our strike committee – give us the latest news and answer any questions. (…) Every day we’re told the next chopper will be the last one out, and if we don’t leave by the deadline we’ll lose our jobs. They’re working on our psychology. We’ve even had the Swedish skipper saying it’s Illegal for us to be here, but he’s quoting an obscure maritime law and the Safe Gotha can’t he classed as a seagoing vessel’. Such measures, along with the demand to regular shift workers to sign no-strike agreements before being flown off – are dismissed by the OILC as ‘crude intimidatory devices’; and such tactics are not new. Mr. McDonald, the OILC chairman refers to “more than ten years of macho management tactics in the north sea, including intimidation and blacklisting those workers which the operators want out”.

Another 24-hour strike is called on Sunday, and by Wednesday 8.8.90, 750 workers are still sitting in aboard the platforms and accomadation floatels. On Thursday, Shell says they would meet OILC representatives as a ‘courtesy’ outside their headquarters (how kind). At this meeting, the reinstatement of sacked people was demanded along with negotiations on a comprehensive safety agreement.

The next day, the struggle spreads with workers at two offshore fabrication yards, and at the St. Fergus oil and gas terminal joining the third 24-hour stoppage. This adds 1,000 more to the 400 still sitting in on the accomadation platforms. Many other groups of workers also express their willingness to support the strike in other oil related industries. Meanwhile, outside the oilfields, The Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions (CSEU) will urge workers at three GEC plants to vote for indefinite stoppages; this is a continuation of the selective strikes that took place last year as part of the campaign for a shorter working week; GEC is the main target as other employers have made agreements. On Monday, 13.8.90, the 4th 24-hour strike is called.

As things hot up, suspicions are voiced about strange things happening on the telephones. Say Milne: ’We’ve been having trouble with the phones (…) I got cut off twice talking to my father’. Shell admits that certain restrictions have been placed on what it refers to as ‘our telephone system’ but says it is allowing workers on the platforms to call their families. Along with this tentative foray into the ‘dirty tricks department’, the employers appeal to the OILC to call off the action so as to allow an official union ballot to take place. This is rejected, showing that the OILC is not willing to genuflect before the holy union ballot. If anything, ‘The first ballot should be for recognition of all offshore workers’, retorts Ronnie MacDonald.

Providing a bit of light relief, the Scottish Nationalists now decide to get in on the act as one of their oft repeated claims is – Scottish Oil for the Scottish. And it must be said, they’ve come up with a real peach of a solution. According to them the oil minister should step in to guarantee workers union rights! So, fresh from the world cup where he was last seen wandering around scratching his head about what to do about British football fans: step forth Colin Moynihan! ex-sports minister and champion of the workers!

To return to the battle-field, a very interesting occurrence shows what formidable problems can occur in the domain of organization. On Saturday, a breakaway group of 400 Southern sector offshore workers decided on an indefinite walkout. This prompted Ronnie MacDonald to say “a situation was developing where the action was becoming uncoordinated (…) accordingly, the men were told to return to work immediately and await the call for properly co-ordinated action”. He said that more action was planned but that he was ‘keeping his options open” on what form it would take. This led to return to work by those workers.

Relations between the unions and the OILC seem to be cordial and Ronnie McDonald is quoted as saying ‘The trade union record in honouring its agreements is beyond reproach. The whole problem is that there is no agreement and there are no procedures through which trade unions can control their members’.

In fact, as far as the employers are concerned, relations between the OILC and the unions are far too cordial. There vexation is best summed up in the words of a contractors spokesman quoted in the Observer, who said ‘It’s about time the unions took control of their members instead of some rogue body ordering them about left, right and centre. It would be Interesting to see a full and frank statement from the unions saying whether they back the strikers or not’. The latter point, at least, we are in agreement on.

The employers decided to remedy the situation by appealing to the TUC by trying to tweak their loyalties to local capitalist interests, and get them to step in as a strike breaking force as they ‘should recognize the safety, economic and, particularly at this time, the strategic importance of the North Sea and exercise their responsibility of leadership to end this action’. The TUC laconically replied that it was odd that the oil companies should be appealing to them for help since the dispute was about union recognition.

Let us then proceed to briefly examining some of the main demands being made, equipped as we are with insufficient information, and the background against which they occur.

The workers demands on safety are made against the backdrop of the latest casualties in the oil-fields – six deaths in a helicopter crash last week when it hit a crane on one of the platforms – and we hardly need remind oil-workers of the 167 lives lost in the inferno of the Piper Alpha disaster two years ago.

The demand of the OILC regarding safety are that instead of the matter being monitored by the department of energy, responsibility be assumed by the health and safety executive. This demand is presumably being made because many workers have noticed how keen the department of energy seems to be to represent the interests of the energy buisnesses, whilst it seems to be less than enthusiastic about ameliorating the conditions of the oil workers. We can appreciate such a demand, but would caution against seeing the health and safety executive as a panacea, as this august body might not be as impartial as it would like to appear.

A demand has also been made by workers from six unions demanding that shopstewards should be appointed as safety officers on board each rig.

We are not aware of the precise demands being made on the wage front, but workers in the British oil-fields know that their Scandinavian counterparts have a far better deal. Ray Milne records ‘The Swedish crew on the Safe Gotha work 14 days on, 28 days off. We do 14 on, 14 off. It’s a big difference’. Meanwhile their Norwegian colleagues receive double their pay (and have a modern safety inspectorate. We would urge this as the demand on the wage front – double the present pay – just like the Norwegians, and this on the hours front – 14 days on, 28 days off – just like the Swedish. Any eyewash about different standards of living etc. should be paid no attention to at all. This is not an extremist demand, rather it is the capitalists who are extremist expecting workers to slog away for a pittance, risking life and limb, whilst they dawdle around at the golf course.

The oil companies are claiming that the strike isn’t hitting oil production itself because the full time workers who work for them, who make up about 30% of the work force, are still at work, whilst the strike is taking place mainly amongst short-term contract workers whose situation is always notoriously difficult since such workers always feel they have to be ‘good as gold’ to keep in work. The situation is very much the same, in fact, as on the various ‘Government training schemes’ where tantalising offers of full-time jobs are coyly revealed to workers as a means of disciplining them – a carrot instead of a stick..

This fact is, there exists a sector of relatively privileged workers against a backdrop of 70% of the workforce who are in a more precarious situation. We wouldn’t of course dream of repremanding full-time oil-workers for being decently paid, if such indeed is the case, but against such a backdrop, the central demand of the strikers for a comprehensive agreement for all workers in the North Sea assumes key importance. For that one reason alone, we would say that the OILC, whatever the plus and minus points of the other unions and bodies that compose it, are the true workers representatives in that their demand is one that takes workers out of the restrictions of the corporatist framework.

We would urge the OILC to continue this valuable work but would warn that to fight purely within the constraints of economic defence will not be the final solution to the problem as it consists in the wage system itself. To fight that system will involve organizing on an International class level led by the International class party.

The problem is immense especially against the background of the crisis in the middle-east. For instance, directly connected with the oil-industry, a weeklong strike amongst Turkish war workers at the strategic US base in Incirlik was broken yesterday as a result of the Iraqi war crisis, with the Turkish government ordering the strike to be postponed because of its new-found alliance with the US, against Iraq – 500 miles from the base. How can we find common cause with these workers without a clearly defined and strong international organization that transcends all national and patriotic demands? Do we fight for our economic demands separate from them or together with them? Should we just fight within limited zones and categories just for wage demands, or should we not ultimately aim to fight with workers in all sectors and in all countries to overthrow the crappy system which oppresses us all?

Easy to say, of course, but this, nevertheless, should be the end we hold in view. How the various sectoral struggles find common cause, both within and across national boundaries will involve a large element of trial and error both for workers, and its political party, the International Communist Party. We will all be going into relatively unknown territory on the tactical front but in the long term the fight will be worth it.

We await with interest further developments within the oil-strike and will try to keep our readers informed. To finish up; since the employers in the oil-fields claim to be so considerate of the oil workers, we will extend a courtesy to one of their representatives, Mr. Salmond, a former oil-economist with the Bank of Scotland, by allowing him to sum up the present stage of the strike: ‘Some operators have seemed hell-bent on promoting industrial chaos rather than working towards peace’. Yes Mr. Salmond, it’s called class war, and your bank will have plenty more examples to comment on in the future.