This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It will not be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk/8123545.stm
The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Vote ends refinery jobs dispute | |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| Construction workers at the Total-run Lindsey oil refinery have voted to accept a deal that will see them return to work after a bitter jobs dispute. | |
| At a meeting at the North Lincolnshire site, unions recommended that workers back a deal thrashed out last week. | |
| It will see 647 workers sacked for taking unofficial strike action get their jobs back - a move hailed by the GMB as an "unprecedented victory". | |
| Total said it was pleased the workers had voted to return. | |
| The row had led to a number of sympathy strikes across Britain, with thousands of workers walking out. | |
| 'Learn lessons' | |
| Addressing hundreds of people outside the refinery on Monday, the GMB union's shop steward Kenny Ward described Thursday's late-night deal as a "smack in the face for the employers, a realisation that they need to take a step back". | |
| He added: "In my opinion we have achieved an unprecedented victory, not just for us but on a legal front as well, so I recommend and we recommend as the shop stewards committee that you vote 'yes' and we return to work." | |
| Unite's assistant general secretary, Les Bayliss, said the decision showed "just how much can be achieved through constructive negotiations". | |
| He added: "We hope that the lessons learned at Lindsey are not forgotten. As the biggest union in construction we look forward to a new chapter of industrial relations in construction. I hope the employers do too." | |
| Mr Bayliss said his union would have accepted nothing less than full reinstatement of the workers. | |
| The workers involved in the dispute are contracted construction workers working on a major expansion project at the refinery. | |
| Sympathy strikes | |
| The project is said to be £85m over-budget and massively behind schedule. | |
| A spokesman for Total told the BBC: "Total is pleased that the HDS-3 unit workers have voted to return to work. | |
| "We look forward to the project getting back on track and completed as soon as possible with no further disruption or additional costs." | |
| The contract workers first went out on unofficial strike on 11 June after a sub-contractor cut 51 jobs. | |
| In the following days, 647 of them were sacked. | |
| There followed further wildcat strikes at the Lindsey refinery and at other power stations and oil and gas plants across the UK, involving thousands of workers | There followed further wildcat strikes at the Lindsey refinery and at other power stations and oil and gas plants across the UK, involving thousands of workers |
| Unions now say they have secured other jobs for the 51 workers as well as reinstating the 647 employees who were sacked. | |
| The unions say they also won a guarantee of no victimisation against workers across the country who took sympathy action. | The unions say they also won a guarantee of no victimisation against workers across the country who took sympathy action. |
| During the dispute, sympathy strikes spread to power stations including Drax and Eggborough, in Yorkshire, Ratcliffe, in Nottinghamshire, and BP's Saltend refinery near Hull. | |
| Workers also went out at the BOC oxygen plant at Scunthorpe, Fiddlers Ferry in Cheshire and Aberthaw in south Wales. | |
| The Lindsey refinery also suffered strikes earlier this year over the employment of non-UK workers. |