Wildcat strikes against foreign workers resumed on Monday at nuclear facilities, oil refineries and power plants across Britain, fuelled by fears of rising job cuts amid the global slowdown. At least 600 contractors at the Sellafield and Heysham nuclear plants in north-west England were among the latest wave of workers to join the protests which first flared last week.
They and others came out against the use of around 100 Italian and Portuguese contractors on a 200 million pound (222 million euro, 286 million dollar) building project at the Lindsey oil refinery, owned by French oil giant Total, in eastern England.
The action has yet to hit energy supplies but with much of Britain waking up to the worst snowfall in 20 years, the action has stirred memories of the 1978-79 "winter of discontent", when industrial action crippled everything from rubbish collection to grave digging. The strikes have been condemned by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, despite a previous pledge by him to provide "British jobs for British workers" in 2007.
"I recognise that people are worried about their jobs at the moment and I want them and their colleagues to be treated fairly," he said Monday. "But I don't believe that strike action will be anything other than counterproductive". European Union law enshrines the right to freedom of movement of workers among member states, of which Britain is one.
The action has also opened up splits in Brown's government - the subject is particularly sensitive because his ruling Labour Party's main source of funding is from trade unions linked to the strikes. Unemployment in Britain has risen sharply in recent months amid the global economic downturn - two million people are jobless and the unemployment rate is 6.1 percent.
Hundreds of workers at a number of facilities around Britain took part in the strikes Monday. Some 1,000 workers gathered at Lindsey, where the dispute arose. Keith Gibson of the Unite trade union told the crowd: "I think there should be a call for industrial action right around this country to make the government aware of how we feel and how we're not prepared to let this industry go to the dogs. "I call on every trade unionist around this country in the construction industry to come out on official action."
Total, the refinery's operators, has insisted it does not discriminate against British workers and says most of its permanent staff are local. Talks between the union, employers and mediators are expected to start later Monday in a bid to resolve the dispute.
Despite Brown's condemnation of the strikes, Health Secretary Alan Johnson told the BBC he wanted to see "fresh directives to make it absolutely clear that people cannot be undercut in this way". Business Secretary Lord Peter Mandelson, a former EU trade commissioner, Monday denied a split among ministers and said it "would be better for discussions to be pursued than unofficial action".
He has previously warned against protectionist moves like restricting the flow of workers, saying it "would be a sure-fire way of turning recession into depression." Sellafield's management has insisted that industrial action "would have no impact on safety, security or production."