Hinkley Point: Deskilling Dispute & Dodgy Training

by Brian Bamford

ON THE 1st, March this year Construction News reported on the deskilling dispute at Hinkley Point in Sommerset, that the creation of two training standards at the nuclear plant would according to the Unite union ‘undermine’ the role of electricians.

There is an industrial conflict which is ongoing at the Hinkley Point C plant after it was discovered that two training standards had been introduced by the Engineering Construction Training Board (ECITB) that would undermine the role of electricians, without Unite, the UK’s construction union, input or agreement.

The matter has been raised directly with the client of the French company EDF, who have reacted to Unite’s concerns. All training in this area has been postponed until the problem is resolved.

Dilutees & Sub-standard Training

The disputed training standards relate to cabling and containment work, which is ‘bread and butter’ work for electricians on new build construction projects.

Unite was alerted to the substandard training standards at an early stage. There are no electricians working at Hinkley Point C, currently undertaking cabling and containment work, as this phase of the project is yet to start.

Owing to the rapid intervention of Unite, the training of any worker or apprentice at Hinkley has not been disrupted as no one has begun to be trained on the ECTIB’s defective training standards.

The Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, has said “The undermining of the role of electrician has been attempted for more than 30 years, most recently in 2011/12 when eight of the major mechanical and electrical (M&E) construction companies promoted the use of non-electrical personnel to carry out skilled electrical tasks under the so called BESNA agreement.

“Unite defeated the BESNA agreement then and we will defeat this latest attempt to deskill electricians.

“Our message to the industry is clear. Unite and its electrical membership will oppose any and all efforts to weaken the skill set of the trade which will undermine the industry by introducing non-skilled operatives.

“Any deskilling of electricians would result in a race to the bottom and would be highly damaging to industrial relations across the sector.”

From the last week in March there have been weekly pickets outside Balfour Beatty’s offices in Bromborough, on the Wirral. Balfour Beatty has been contracted with EDF on the Somerset nuclear power plant. And another implicated contractor NG Bailey, has had its offices in Salford picketed on Fridays, and its sites at Manchester University and Manchester Town Hall have faced demonstrations by local activist electricians from the Manchester Contracing branch of Unite.

An Unholy Alliance of cheap-jack training

EDF and its partners are building the Hinkley C nuclear power plant in Somerset. The firms there have introduced new installer grades that undercut industry terms and conditions.

The bosses’ MEH Alliance at Hinkley Point C is a consortium made up of Altrad, Balfour Beatty Bailey, Cavendish Nuclear and Doosan Babcock. It is calling the new rate-busting grades Electrical Support Operatives (ESO) and Engineering Construction Operative.

Their grand plan is to run short courses for electricians on how to install containment or cabling. There are 9,000 km of cable and 404 km of containment to install on the Hinkley project.

Hinkley Point C is due to open in June 2026—a year late and so far at a cost of £23 billion, some £5 billion over budget.

In February,Simon Basketter in the Socialist Worker wrote:

'Unite has enthusiastically supported the building of the nuclear plant. While it was proud to sign up to an agreement for apprentices which appears to have been broken, it also seems to have sleepwalked into the creation of ESOs.

'The dispute has echoes of the electricians’ Besna dispute in 2011. Originally eight companies had planned to impose a new agreement and grade on workers to undercut wages and organisation.

'That [dispute] saw an escalating campaign of direct action on construction sites. Electricians protested, occupied and struck unofficially for six months.'

The contracting electricians will have to be on the ball to fight off this assault on standards in the industry.

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Appeal Court clears Shrewsbury pickets

The Court of Appeal has overturned the convictions of 14 men sentenced for their involvement in pickets in 1972.

Trade unionists who picketed during the national builders' strike were charged with offences including unlawful assembly and conspiracy to intimidate.

Lawyers for the so-called Shrewsbury 24 had argued the destruction of witness statements made their convictions unsafe.

Lord Justice Fulford said "what occurred was unfair".

The Royle Family star Ricky Tomlinson was among those convicted. He was jailed for two years.

Speaking after the verdict, he said: "It is only right that these convictions are overturned."

Six of the 14 who brought the action have since died, including Dennis Warren, who was jailed for three years.

Mr Tomlinson added: "My thoughts today are with my friend and comrade Des Warren.

"I'm just sorry he is not here today so we can celebrate, but I'm sure he's with us in spirit." Some of the appellants at court

Speaking at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Lord Justice Fulford said: "These 14 appeals against conviction are allowed across the three trials and on every extant count which the 14 appellants faced."

But he added: "It would not be in the public interest to order a retrial."

In its written ruling, the Court of Appeal allowed the 14 appellants' appeals on the grounds that original witness statements had been destroyed.

In June 1972, trade unionists called the UK's first-ever national builders' strike in protest against pay, unjust employment practices and dangerous conditions on sites.

Trade unionists travelled to demonstrate from one site to another and in September six coach-loads of strikers demonstrated in Shrewsbury and Telford.

Police arrested none of the demonstrators that day but five months later the picketers were charged and subsequently convicted.

Lord Justice Fulford wrote: "If the destruction of the handwritten statements had been revealed to the appellants at the time of the trial, this issue could have been comprehensively investigated with the witnesses when they gave evidence, and the judge would have been able to give appropriate directions.

"We have no doubt that if that had happened, the trial process would have ensured fairness to the accused. Self-evidently, that is not what occurred.

"By the standards of today, what occurred was unfair to the extent that the verdicts cannot be upheld."

Lawyers had argued the broadcast of a documentary about communism during the trials was "deeply prejudicial", but the Court of Appeal dismissed the claim that the Red under the Bed documentary might have made the verdicts unsafe. 'Serious questions'

Arthur Murray, who was convicted of affray and unlawful assembly and sentenced to six months, said: "We were innocent all along, yet it has taken us nearly 50 years to clear our names.

"Sadly my mother and four of my siblings have passed away without knowing that we were innocent.

"Serious questions need to be asked about the role of the building industry bosses in our convictions and the highest offices of government who all had a hand in our trial and conviction.

"Make no mistake, our convictions were a political witch-hunt."

Mr Tomlinson, from Liverpool, echoed his remarks, saying: "We were brought to trial at the apparent behest of the building industry bosses, the Conservative government and ably supported by the secret state.

"This was a political trial not just of me, and the Shrewsbury pickets - but was a trial of the trade union movement."

Tomlinson and trade unionists in Court of Appeal Ricky Tomlinson's strike conviction to be reviewed Latest news from the West Midlands

Terry Renshaw, a former Flintshire mayor, who was convicted of unlawful assembly, paid tribute to the campaign's researcher, Eileen Turnbull, who worked "tirelessly" to obtain "crucial evidence".

She uncovered a document in the National Archives which were part of the prosecution papers and revealed for the first time police had destroyed some of the original witness statements.

Mr Renshaw added: "It's been 47 years. I'm just so emotional. I didn't think it would hit me like this. I am no longer a criminal."

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Johnson blamed for ‘criminal negligence’ & ‘social murder’

item supplied by Joe Bailey

A TOP SAFETY law academic has accused prime minister Boris Johnson of criminality and ‘social murder’ after he called for an early return to work. Steve Tombs, professor in social policy and criminality at the Open University, said “the government must know that construction workers are exposed to and unwitting carriers of coronavirus. In my view this is criminal negligence, it’s manslaughter, it’s social murder.”  Professor Tombs was commenting in a Reel News online criticism of the government’s policy, featuring construction workers and their family members and construction, legal and safety experts. 

The video was produced by the grassroots Shut The Sites campaign, which is calling for the closure of all non-essential building sites and for all workers to be paid irrespective of whether they are employees, self-employed or agency workers. It says the same day the government urged all construction workers to return to work, Office of National Statistics figures showed “keeping sites open has led to three times as many deaths of construction workers as healthcare professionals.  Hundreds more will die if this appalling policy is allowed to continue - so Shut The Sites are calling for collective organisation to stop the carnage.”  It added:  “Construction workers on site are being encouraged to join a union and take action collectively to protect themselves and their families, alongside demonstrations by members of local communities at sites near them.”

It said all non-essential work should stop and any critical works must only continue “with the highest level of health and safety possible to protect workers.”  This week the government said local planning authorities were now expected to support the extension of site operating hours to 9pm in residential areas.  The ONS figures showed ‘Low-skilled workers in construction’ had a Covid-19 death rate of 25.9 per 100,000 males compared to the general working age population, five times the rate for ‘professionals’.
Reel News. Shut the Sites blog. Deaths in England and Wales related to Covid-19 by occupation, ONS, 11 May 2020.
The Guardian. Good Morning Britain. Construction Enquirer.

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Body Bags Protest -

Construction Workers Call To 'Shut The Sites'

THE Construction Leadership Council (CLC ) have just shockingly announced that construction needs to stay open and social distancing for coronavirus can be ignored for up to 15 minutes at a time, if a job cannot be carried out by one person alone. This watering down of official guidelines for building sites will pass on infection to their family members and send hundreds to their deaths.

No construction worker wants to put their family at risk, but they also need to pay their rent, which is why the electrician, bricklayer, carpenter, engineer and union safety rep who participated in the direct action also called on the government to pay every worker, irrespective of whether they are a direct employee, self-employed or an agency worker.

'Shut The Sites' activist went on to blockade a nearby Laing O'Rourke’s building site, sending a clear message to the CLC, major contractors and the government - if you don't shut down construction and keep people safe, then workers are going to
do it themselves.

The protest took place of 28th April - International Workers Memorial Day The global Day of Action by unions over deaths in the workplace. The slogan for the protest is “Mourn the Dead – Fight for the Living”.

So after the protest, the construction workers paid their respects to their fellow workers who had died at the bronze ‘Building Worker’ statue at Tower Hill in London. Shut The Sites spokesperson, Dan Dobson said:

#ShutTheSites is taking off as a grassroots movement on construction sites across the UK, made up of workers who disagree with the Government policy of keeping sites open. At least 100 NHS/Care workers have now died from Covid-19, the Government have shown that it cannot protect or provide PPE for the genuine front line key workers, so how are non essential construction workers meant to fare? All non-critical sites need to be stopped and all workers need to be paid, regardless of their employment status."

Note: A full risk assessment was carried out prior to the action, full PPE was provided and control measures were put in place to reduce transmission of COVID-19.