Strike action across UK

As if anticipating what we are studying in Higher Business Management, the main news story on this afternoons BBC News website is about the refinery strikes breaking out across the UK. The main elements of the story are:

• The original strike started in Lincolnshire because Total, the owner of the Lindsey Oil Refinery, awarded a contract to an Italian firm.


• Other strikes broke out across the UK in support of the mass walkout at the Lindsey Oil Refinery.


• The leaders of Unite, the largest union in the UK with over 2 million members in the public and private sector, and the GMB, a general union anyone can join, are pressuring the Prime Minister to meet with the heads of industry in the engineering and construction industry.


• They unions want the rights of their members to have the opportunity to be employed.


• The Unite leader, Derek Simpson, said workers felt powerless as they watched foreign workers get employment while they remain unemployed.

The full story is available on the BBC News website. As we have spoken about in class, the trade unions offer the powerless individuals the opportunity to group together to have an important voice. The walkout is the first piece of industrial action they have taken.