The UK’s summer of discontent, which has seen professions from barristers to dockworkers vote to strike, has another workforce mulling whether to down tools.
Unite the union is balloting over 300 offshore drilling and contract maintenance workers covered by the United Kingdom Drilling Contractors Association (UKDCA). The ballot closes on September 27. It follows Unite members rejecting a 5% pay offer. The UKDCA which covers around 600 workers includes a number of major offshore contractors including Archer, Maersk, Transocean and Odfjell.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite’s UKDCA members are always the first to suffer when there is a downturn offshore and the last to benefit when there is an upturn – that’s if they even benefit at all. UKDCA drill crews have had no meaningful pay increase for a number of years despite the consistently high price of oil and gas, and record operator profits. Our members have their union’s full support in fighting for better jobs, pay and conditions offshore.”
With inflation standing at a 40-year high, strikes have become commonplace across the UK this summer with postal workers, train drivers and telecom employees also signing up for militant action.
