Oil rig builders face sack threat

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The struggle to defend decent safety standards at the oil platform building yard of Ayrshire Marine Constructors at Hunterston, Ayrshire, has erupted into an all-out battle with the management.

Since the yard opened there has been continual strife with the American management of the Chicago Bridge International, a partner in the yard with Phillips Petroluem.

Now Phillips have declared their intention to remove the section of the rig that has been constructed if the men refuse to accept the conditions dictated to them by the management.

Meeting This intention was made clear after an emergency meeting at Brighton on the eve of the TUC conference between Phillips and the national officers of the two unions involved, the Boilermakers and the GMWU.

The present dispute arose over a management refusal once again to adhere to the recommendations of the safety repres entatives on the site.

The management then refused to pay the men involved for the time that they would not work in an unsafe situation.

The bosses have taken a tough line and are determined to allow no change in the present working agreement, the dreadful terms of which have been spelled out in previous issues of Socialist Press.

The shop stewards and their convenor, Ronnie Munro, have expressed their determination not to be blackmailed into giving in.

At a meeting on Thursday last in the Magnum Centre, Irvine, the workforce reaffirmed their decision to fight on, despite the lack of official union backing. • How far the management can actually carry out their doubtial. There are precedents for such an action. In December 1916, Shell removed two large concrete production platforms from Ardyne Point opposite side of the Clyde Estuary, and took them to Norway for completion.

But this time, the stewards point out, the ony sica problems of moving the platform large unlikely Phillips will rush into taking such action.

Even so, this is the most crude form of blackmail and the 900 workers have shown courage and • determination in confronting a ruthiess management.

Pickets have now gone up at the gates and a strike centre established in Irvine. The maximum pressure must now be exerted . by the trade union movement to ensure that the leadership of the Boilermakers and the GMWU make the strike official. : The stewards are also looking to an emergency meeting of the onshore liaison committee, which includes representatives of shop stewards of all six platform yards in They are looking beyond this to a delegate conference of shop stewards in the industry to mobilise maximum support and black all work for Phillips, especially that done at Kishorn. Finally, they need immediate financial and moral support and the address to send this to is The Shop Stewards Committee (Hunterston Dispute), c/o Irvine Trade Union Centre, Ardrossan Road, Irvine. Ayrshire, Scotland.

Last Friday over 250 workers joined a mass picket outside the site. Police held back after being reminded that the Employment Act is not yet in force.

Meanwhile all 900 workers have been issued with dismissal notices.

Phillips drilling rig