Personal Report from LOR, by Phil Whitehurst, GMB Sacked Shop Steward

Personal Report from LOR, by Phil Whitehurst, GMB Sacked Shop Steward

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Brothers and Sisters

I have registered my own identity so MANAGEMENT surfers of this web site know the identity of the person who is lambasting them, although it carries the backing of all the representatives on LOR.

Firstly the SACKED Stewards, and all the SACKED, ex employees of LOR, would like to wholeheartedly thank all the supporters around the UK who left their places of work this week to join our protest against the Spurious, Belligerent , ante Trade Union Management the likes we are having to deal with.

As the nation saw yesterday on national TV, after they locked us out of LOR with tight security, TOTAL released to the media that they were seeking meetings with the full time offers and the Stewards of both signatory Unions on LOR, the full time officers cleared their diaries one even turned his car round near Teesside and drove back to LOR, others had over 50 miles to drive to LOR, never the less they responded positively and came to LOR, we were informed to go to the Catch Centre near Stalingborough for a meeting with ACAS and representatives of TOTAL.

We had a pre-meeting at 10-15am, and ACAS arrived shortly after, we sat in the centre, ACAS in one room, us in the other until 2-30pm waiting for TOTAL to arrive, then only to be told by a frustrated officer of ACAS, that TOTAL now do not see the need to talk to the FTO’s and Stewards, they are going to wait until Monday to see the response to their sacking letters offer, the offer we regard as an invite to the workforce to crawl back on their bellies and re-apply for their Jobs.

I for one, and I am sure there is a majority on LOR, will never put our principals to one side to show subservience in a manner TOTAL want these extremely highly skilled workers to do. TOTAL’s mismanagement of this whole affair has been to say the least astounding, we are supposed to be dealing with highly educated people here, and all they want to do is play idiotic publicity stunts the likes they did on Friday by giving the workforce a glimmer of hope talks are underway, only then to pull the rug from under the Unions feet by not turning up.

In my opinion, and now as a SACKED Shop Steward I am no longer bound by the Law of not being able to voice my opinions, for the fear of management turning them round and accusing me of incitement of industrial action, It is the management who have deliberately invoked this action by trying the same manoeuvre they tried in January by pitting British workers against Italian workers, only this time it is British workers against British workers, they have deliberately undermined the Unions by false statements in the audit reports regarding competency and wage payments to the foreign workers, they have made derogatory statements about the workforce regarding transfers of employment, they have no intention to honour their release in February that“No one will be directly made redundant as a result of IREM gaining this contract on LOR “and they are blatantly trying to smash our national agreements and scupper the National Ballot for industrial action that is now be formulated.

If we cave in to their bullying, disgraceful, outrageous demands, by crawling back like dogs on our bellies and pleading for our jobs back, I am certain that the selection process will be by selective engagement, victimising anyone who has spoken up in the past, or who they think will in the future, and then our lives will not be worth living They will destroy the trade union movement, smash every national agreement we have and then this practice will be a bench mark for every site in the country in the future years.

I have personally spoken to Paul Kenny (General Secretary of the GMB) and I cannot print his reply because of all the expletives, but he is absolutely disgusted in TOTAL with their Bullying, belligerent behaviour, and he has requested me to assure the whole workforce on LOR he is not walking away from his responsibilities toward the sacked workers of LOR. So far, UNITE have not made any positive statements regarding defending the Locked out workers at Lindsey oil and I ask them to contact their respective Union Leaders for clarity and an obligation to fight on their behalf.

We have to stand firm and show TOTAL we are not just cannon fodder in their battle with subcontractors on LOR to get their Job completed with the maximum profit, and to that there has been a call from the masses that every LOR worker who is not out protesting at other sites, to bring their dismissal notices to the LOCK OUT PROTEST at LOR on Monday morning and at 8-oclock we will have a burning ceremony to show the employers, and the media, our disgust, and abhorrence, at the Managements inept handling of the whole HDS3 Project at Lindsey Oil Refinery, I also call on the Nation for a NATIONAL uprising, and the whole country to join us in support of the VICTIMSATION that is now happening on LOR.

Thank you for your Consideration

Phil Whitehurst (Sacked Shaw Group UK, GMB Steward Lindsey OIL Refinery)