FOREIGN LABOUR ROW DEAL REJECTED !

Workers say the action is not racist, but about discrimination against Britons

Workers battling against the use of foreign labour at North Lincolnshire's Lindsey Oil Refinery have refused to accept a deal proposed in Acas talks.

The suggested solution came after talks between unions and the refinery owner.

There were reports that about half of the disputed 200 jobs would be offered to British workers, but workers have been told it would be less than 25%.

Workers are angry a sub-contractor is using only non-British labour, and similar protests spread around the UK.

Speaking from the Lindsey site, the BBC's Danny Savage said: "As things stand this protest continues, this dispute is not over."

At a mass meeting on site on Wednesday, protesters were told that about 60 of the 200 jobs would be made available to British workers - 40 skilled and 20 unskilled.

They believed the figure was too low, and have also demanded proof that the foreign workers being brought in are on the same pay and terms and conditions as their British counterparts.

Total has consistently claimed this is the case, but local workers do not believe it, added the BBC correspondent.

Negotiations will continue on Wednesday, he said.

Unemployed workers and contractors in oil refineries, power stations and nuclear plants have been taking part in protests since last week.

Union activists have said the issue has been simmering in the industry for years, with British workers being excluded from applying for some jobs.

On Wednesday morning protesters again gathered at the Lindsey site, a week after the walkouts began.

The current row is centred on the North Lincolnshire plant, in North Killingholme, which is owned by French company Total.

A contract for work to expand the refinery was sub-contracted by Total's main contractor - engineering firm Jacobs - to an Italian company, IREM, which decided to use its own foreign workforce.

Total insists it is not discriminating against British workers and that the decision to award the contract was fair.

But the protests spread and in the last week thousands of workers at more than 20 sites in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have taken part in sympathy walkouts and protests.

Talks involving the unions, Total, and its contractors began on Monday in Scunthorpe, then moved to a hotel near Grimsby.

ONE WEEK OF SUPPORT PROTESTS 1-5: Stanlow oil refinery [1]; Longannet Power Station [2]; Drax Power Station [3]; Coryton Refinery [4]; Langage Power Station [5] 6-10: Marchwood Power Station [6]; Fawley Refinery [7]; Torness Power Station [8]; Mossmorran chemical plant [9]; Aberthaw power station [10] 11-15: South Hook gas terminal [11]; ICI chemical refinery [12]; Corus steel plant [13]; Fiddler's Ferry Power Station [14]; AES Kilroot Power Station [15] 16-22: Cockenzie Power Station [16]; Sellafield nuclear site [17]; Heysham nuclear power station [18]; Staythorpe power station [19]; Didcot Power Station [20] Grangemouth oil refinery [21]; St Fergus gas plant [22]

Union sources had told the BBC that the deal appeared to offer 50% of the disputed jobs to British workers.

Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite, told BBC Breakfast the dispute needed to be settled, but there was still a "wider problem" to address.

"Even if this dispute is settled [there is] still a major problem about how these foreign companies, who win contracts and come complete with a workforce, are going to create other difficulties.

"We need to build in some sort of concept that the jobs that are created by these contracts are open to everyone - to foreign and to UK workers."

He said there were several other similar disputes "bubbling under" at other places.

"It will occur again, and I'm sure it will occur in other countries as well unless there's a realisation that you can't just use the freedom of labour to the exclusion of indigenous labour."

During Tuesday's demonstration outside the Lindsey plant strike committee member Phil Whitehurst said they were convinced of their case.

"People have said it's racist. It's not. We're not part of the BNP. I've shunned the BNP away from here," he said.

"It's about British workers getting access to a British construction site."

The CBI has backed the company at the centre of the dispute, while Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has said the country should focus on the economics of the recession, not on "the politics of xenophobia".

But Labour backbencher Jon Cruddas criticised the language being used by the government and said people should focus on the need for employers to respect local employment agreements as well as national pay deals.

"Unfortunately, over the last day or two, we have heard a lot of talk about xenophobia," he said.

"I am afraid that does not respect some of the issues that are at work here and that sort of language builds up the problem rather than acknowledges the nature of the problem."

Labour MP John Mann has put down a Commons early day motion "deploring" the use of foreign workers at the Lindsey refinery and praising unions for "exposing this exploitation and the absence of equal opportunities to apply for all jobs".

BBC NEWS REPORT.