Vivergo Fuels dispute: Union contests breach of public order charge

A NATIONAL OFFICIAL OF THE GMB UNION will attend a preliminary hearing at Hull Magistrates Court today 17th May 2011, to answer a Public Order Act charge in connection with the ‘lock out’ dispute at the Vivergo Fuels site in Saltend.

Phil Whitehurst, an official for the Engineering Construction section of the GMB, was arrested on Wednesday 4th May while he was attending a protest against the lock out of 430 workers at the construction site at the BP Chemicals Park.

Mr Whitehurst was taken into police custody at Hull police station and video footage that he took of the event confiscated. He was released later in the day having been charged with being in breach of Section 14 of the Public Order Act.

GMB is fully supporting its national official who will be pleading not guilty and have appointed a human rights lawyer to represent Mr Whitehurst at the hearing and will be contesting the charge.

Further talks, convened by ACAS, took place yesterday between the employers and the Unions. This follows consideration by the workforce of a proposal put by the employers to pay £3,700 to employees to end the dispute. Previous talks have failed to resolve the dispute. However, the GMB reports that the number of members who wish to go back to work on the site is reducing on a daily basis.

The 430 workers have been locked out of the site since 14th March 2011.

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Call for National Day of Action over Vivergo Fuels dispute

SHOP STEWARDS representing Construction workers from across the country are meeting over the next two days and will discuss a call for a national day of action in support of 400 workers they say have been 'locked-out' for 2 months by Vivergo Fuels.

Talks aimed at resolving the dispute, which has led to local traffic queues and other problems on protest days, collapsed at the end of April. Other workers, scaffolders and electricians at the bi-ethanol construction site at Saltend have already shown a willingness to walk out in support of their colleagues when asked. But the latest call from the industry's national shop stewards forum, is for a national day of action which would involve construction workers from around the country taking part in some form of action.

The GMB union has already started a hardship fund for the workers and appeals are being made for financial support from other engineering workers' unions.

The date for any planned day of action is likely to be announced within the next 48 hours.

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Talks fail, protests continue at Vivergo Fuels

TALKS AIMED AT ENDING the industrial dispute at Saltend have failed and protests at the Vivergo Fuels site are set to continue.

Trade union members involved in the dispute met last week and rejected the latest proposals on the table offered via the arbitration process. The deal involved the workers being offered a payout to cover unpaid wages since the dispute began - according to the Yorkshire Post Redhall Engineering Solutions, who originally 'employed' the men through a national industry agreement, deny any liability but agreed to contribute £1.2m towards such a deal.

The latest statement from the GMB union says that the dispute is about jobs, maintaining national agreements and not just about money. Paul Kenny, GMB General Secretary says:

"The decision by the workforce to continue to protest about their unlawful treatment shows their determination for both justice and to show Vivergo and BP that their jobs and rights cannot be bought for a few measly pounds."

National Shop stewards are meeting on Wednesday April 27th to discuss further action in support of the workers and have raised concerns that if the deal had been accepted it would have led to employers been able to cherry-pick who worked at the site with fears that union activists may have been intimidated or blacklisted.

Vivergo Fuels - which is a consortium of BP, Du Point and British Sugar - made calls last week, via a letter leaked to the Hull Daily Mail, for the deal to be put to a secret ballot of the men involved.

Meanwhile, the dispute - and ongoing traffic hold-ups for local residents heading into Hull during each protest - is set to continue from this morning.

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Protest March in support of workers at Saltend construction site

AROUND 800 PEOPLE marched through Hull City Centre yesterday in support of workers who have been "locked out" from their jobs at the Vivergo Fuels construction site at Saltend.

Trade Union representatives from different construction sites around the country joined local supporters from the private and public sectors in Hull in a serious but buoyant protest march. Representative of the workers Keith Gibson said BP was the leading company behind the Vivergo consortium which also included DuPont and British Sugar and should be the target of action to encourage it to act on behalf of the workforce.

Vivergo Fuels have previously issued a statement saying they had cancelled the contract with Redhall Solutions Ltd who were employing the workers because the works should have been completed by February 2011.

Keith Gibson said at the workers rally yesterday "There has been a great turnout and we are here to step up the action and hit management where we can. The job's going nowhere. There is four to six months work outstanding and we want to go back and finish that job."

As well as supporting the construction workers the protest march took on a wider "anti-cuts" theme and was joined by workers from Hull City Council. One speaker from the National Shop Stewards movement called for a one-day general strike in a campaign to force the Government to back down on its austerity programme.

The dispute continues.

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Beyond the traffic disruption - Saltend industrial dispute

LOCAL COMMUTERS AND MOTORISTS EXPERIENCED massive disruption on the roads leading to Saltend yesterday between 6am and 9am. Traffic was reduced to a crawl as massive tailbacks clogged up the roads through Hedon and Preston.

The disruption was caused by the ongoing industrial dispute at the Vivergo Fuels site at the Saltend industrial complex. Hull Road leading to Saltend Lane was closed by police as protesters cars were parked on the roadside. Some traffic problems may be experienced for the rest of the week, but major traffic disruption could result next Monday 28th March when the dispute is expected to escalate.

The industrial dispute behind the traffic problems arose on March 11th when Vivergo Fuels, who are constructing a £200 million pound bio-fuel plant at Saltend, terminated a contract with Redhall Engineering Solutions Ltd for falling behind on its contractual obligations. Redhall in turn issued a notice to approximately 430 workers stating that as from Monday 14 March 2011 they would no longer be employed by them and should turn up for work to be transferred to either Vivergo Fuels Ltd or any contractor that is given the contract. When the workers turned up for work on the 14th March, Vivergo Fuels through its agents denied any liability to employ the staff. The main union involved, the GMB have said that the workforce are effectively "locked out".

Vivergo Fuels is a consortium company made up from a partnership of BP, DuPont and British Sugar. Vivergo Fuels manage the project via another company Aker Process part of the Jacob's Engineering Group. The workforce are employed by a range of contractors in accordance with an industry wide agreement with the trade unions, but the range of companies and agencies involved means that 'employer - contractor - employee' formal legal relationships are far from clear.

Redhall have said said the workforce employed on the site have been transferred under TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment) regulations to Vivergo Fuels. They claim that £14 million of costs on the contract are still unpaid and have referred the matter to their legal representatives.

The GMB meanwhile has highlighted the case of the workers who have been left in limbo from all this:

"This leaves the workers in a impossible situation in that they have uncertainty of employment and are not receiving wages from 14 March 2011. Workers from the other contractors have been sent home on full pay."

The dispute is expected to escalate next week as union members from across the country will hold demonstrations in support of their Saltend members.

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