Britannia Radio

This news report is depressing.  None of the main parties will grasp 
the nettle.  We've been landed in this mess by Labour so perhaps one 
is not surprised at their hostility to the strikers/

But the LibDems and the Tories are either being very dim at failing 
to see the difference between a Pole (say) coming to find a job and 
an organised mass importantation of a whole work force OR they are 
secretly backing the EU's rules while pretending to care about the 
unemployed. .

If they can't grasp that, heaven help us all.

Further on  Mandelson speaks here more like an EU commisioner  than a 
British minister. Of course, under the contract he signed on becoming 
a commissioner he promised to always put the EU first - his pension 
depends on it!

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BBC ONLINE      1.2.09  at 2248 hrs
Talks due over refinery strikes

Talks between both sides in the dispute over foreign workers at the 
Lyndsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire will begin on Monday morning, 
the BBC has learnt.

The news comes as Business Secretary Lord Mandelson urged workers 
planning to take "sympathy strike" action on Monday to call off their 
protests.

The government has also said it might challenge EU law to stop cheap 
foreign labour "undercutting" British workers.
It said European Court of Justice rulings had "undermined" 
protections. [Since these judgements were at least two years ago,  it 
seems to have taken this strike for the government to notice! -cs]

The developments come in the wake of wildcat strikes across the UK 
over the use of foreign labour at a Total-owned oil refinery.
Changing EU law would need the agreement of other member states and 
could take years to get through and the Lib Dems warned challenging 
EU labour laws would be a "huge, self-defeating step too far".

Discrimination claim
Speaking on BBC One's Andrew Marr show, Health Secretary Alan 
Johnson, a former trade union leader, said: "If workers are being 
brought across here on worse terms and conditions to actually get 
jobs in front of British workers, on the basis of dumbing down the 
terms and conditions, that would be wrong and I can understand the 
anger about that."

He said both the government and trade unions strongly backed EU laws 
on the free movement of labour but that some of the protections in EU 
law may have been "undermined" by recent [FAR from recent - cs]  
judgements in the European Court of Justice.

Hundreds walked out last week in a series of strikes around the UK in 
protest at the use of Italian and Portuguese labour at the Lindsey 
refinery.

There is concern industrial action could flare up again this week.
Contractors at nuclear power sites in Sellafield in Cumbria and 
Heysham in Lancashire, are due to decide whether to join the 
unofficial walkouts.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown told BBC One's Politics show he 
understood workers' fears over jobs, but said walkouts were "not the 
right thing to do".

Lord Mandelson said he hoped the strikes would be called off after 
Total issued a statement maintaining that firms from the UK were not 
barred from bidding for subcontracts.  [THAT is not the issue!  and 
Total knows it isn't -cs]

The firm said it sub-contracted "on a fair and non-discriminatory 
basis" and that wage rates were the same as for equivalent jobs on site.

Labour laws
It would work with sub-contractors to ensure British workers were 
treated fairly, it added.

Lord Mandelson said arguments over rulings by the European Court were 
a separate issue.

The European Court of Justice has recently provided interpretations 
of the EU's Posted Workers Directive, which seeks to ensure companies 
cannot use foreign employees to get round domestic labour laws and 
pay rates.

Its rulings suggest a company should be free to decide how it is 
staffed and free to provide the services it wishes.

The most significant concerned a Latvian company, Laval, which had a 
contract to build schools in Sweden.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
  This form of contract clearly cannot go on
Frank Field, Labour MP
++++++++++++++++++++++++

Laval claimed its freedom to use a Latvian workforce was being 
inhibited by attempts to block the move by Swedish unions. Its 
complaint was upheld.

Unions in the UK suggest this ruling has now enabled foreign 
companies to discriminate against British workers for jobs.

Former Labour minister Frank Field, co-chairman of a cross-party 
group on immigration, urged Mr Brown to push for a change in EU law 
to protect workers.

"This form of contract clearly cannot go on - where contracts are 
awarded and there's free movement of companies but those companies 
then restrict who can apply for those jobs.

"That clearly has got to change and tomorrow [Monday] I hope he'll 
make an announcement, saying that if that is the law, then the law in 
the European Union is actually going to be changed."

Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, which campaigns 
for Britain's exit from the EU, said: "'British jobs for British 
workers' will only happen when Britain is run by and for Britons."

'Massive influx'
But the Lib Dems warned against any move by the government to exempt 
Britain from EU employment laws.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said: "The truth is that twice as many 
British people live and work in the EU than EU citizens work here. 
Any attempt to ban EU citizens from jobs in Britain would be a 
massive own goal.

"If every EU country followed suit, we would have to cope with a 
massive influx of British people who work overseas.
"Pulling out of the labour rules in Europe would be a huge, self-
defeating step too far."  [Clegg is - as usual - missing the point.  
It is not individual workers but organised groups being imported en 
masse that are intolerable -cs ]

The Conservatives said they understood people's fears about 
unemployment but said strikes were "not the way forward". [Of course 
thery're not.  The way forward is for the sub-contractors to suspend 
all operations -cs]

Shadow foreign secretary William Hague said the Conservatives 
"strongly supported" the free movement of Labour within the EU. [He's 
as bad as Clegg.  ALL these politicians deliberately [?] mix up 
groups of organised labour brigades with individiuals.  We can be in 
favour of the second and against the first -cs]

But he said the British government was not doing enough to protect 
and create jobs, such as by offering tax rebates to firms who take on 
people who have been out of work for three months, as the Tories 
propose.
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POLITICS HOME    1.2 09
COMMENTS
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BBC News at 18:25
Mandelson: Regulations will be upheld and they will be applied

Lord Mandelson, Business Secretary

Following the release of a statement from Total saying it had never 
been their policy to discriminate against UK workers, Lord Mandelson 
said this was a very important commitment from the company.

"I think the important development that has taken over the past hour 
is that the employers at the core of this have made clear these is no 
policy to discriminate against UK workers.[Except for the small point 
that the sub-contracvtor refuses to employ Britons -cs]

"No British worker will be discriminated against they will be clear 
to apply - this is an important statement. I hope that message is now 
carried across all those industries concerned. [TOTAL may say that, 
but the sub-contractor has brought its work force with it -cs]

"The regulations are the regulations and they will be upheld and they 
will be applied. They will be applied not simply in this plant but 
with all employers."

"What I'm rather more concerned to establish are the facts, ACAS have 
been brought into establish all the relevant facts.

"This is a time where people feel very anxious and insecure about 
their jobs and future employments. I can understand why people are 
expressing these feelings. It's not for me to rule in or out action 
that may be taken by companies. My job however is to bring people 
together to make sure the facts are firmly established," he said.

He added: "We must make sure that the economic recession is as quick 
and painless as possible, to make sure the banks are back to proper 
working order, make sure we can do what we can as a government to 
secure peoples jobs and lastly to ensure where people are unemployed 
that short term unemployment does not become long term unemployment."

22.15 Westminster Hour, Radio 4

Lord Mandelson later added that he believed people were looking for 
clarification in the way in which sub contractors are appointed.

"I'm very glad that Lyndsey oil refinery has said there will be no 
dicsrimination towards [sic - Eh?] UK workers.

"I think that in moving swiftly and by inviting ACAS in that we do 
establish the fact that people are properly reassured.

"I know workers at Sellafield are meeting early tomorrow morning out 
of sympathy for what they think has been an infringement of British 
employment rights.

"All I can say is that of course I as the Business Secretary want to 
see jobs here in Britain enabling British workers to be fully 
employed, but that doesn't mean to say anyone else would be excluded. 
We have a single market in Europe in employment - it's a two way 
traffic."  [Why must he lie?  He knows that this isn't true - The 
Italians stopped a British company doing the same thing -cs]
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Westminster Hour, Radio 4 at 22:25
Cruddas: I sympathise with the frustrations of workers

Jon Cruddas, Labour MP

Mr Cruddas said he sympathised with the frustrations of workers 
saying the Labour party should act for equality, he added that the 
government should change the language used tackling the financial 
crisis.

  "The consequences of recent decisions of the European Court of 
Justice which means companies can post workers over here is a real 
concern. It is a single market but the problem is the changes 
challenge the notion of the social Europe.

"I think the government is moving quickly on this and with the 
involvement of ACAS I'm not pessimistic about our ability to do it," 
he said.