March and Demo at Staythorpe and Isle of Grain

March for Fair Access to Jobs at Staythorpe

Date: 10.30am, Tuesday, 24th February, 2009
Time: Assemble at 10.30am. March commences at 11.00am.
Assembly point: Great North Road, Lorry Park. The workers will march from North Road, Lorry Park to Butter Market for a rally.

Route: March out of car park onto Great North Road heading toward Newark and down to roundabout. Turn left onto Bar Gate and right onto Kirk Gate. Follow the road and take next right into Middle Gate and left into Stodman Street to end the march in Butter Market for speakers.

Coaches can park free in Great North Lorry Park.

Cars can park next to lorry park in pay and display.

Leading a march of hundreds of unemployed construction workers will be Unite's joint general secretary, Derek Simpson.

The march is to campaign for fair access to jobs for unemployed construction workers being refused work at Staythorpe power station.

Demonstrations will also take place outside Grain power station in Kent between 6.30am and 9.30am
Grain Power Station
Isle of Grain
Rochester
Kent ME3 0AF


Background:
Alstom has been contracted by RWE to build the Staythorpe power station, a gas-fired power station near Newark. Two companies, Montpressa and FMM, have been subcontracted to carry out construction work on the site. These two non-UK contracting companies say they have no intention of employing any local labour to undertake the work.

Unite estimates that 600 jobs will be needed to build the power stations turbine and boiler (Montpressa will fit the turbine and FMM will fit the boiler), and another 250 to build the pipe connecting the two. None of these jobs will go to UK workers.

At the Isle of Grain, two sub-contractors, Remak and ZRE, have also refused to consider applications for work from UK-based labour. Unite estimates that the two sub-contractors will require 450 workers over the lifetime of the project. Alstom has been contracted by E.on to build the power station.

Unite is calling on the government to insist that companies applying for contracts on public infrastructure projects sign up to corporate social responsibility agreements committing contractors to fair access for UK labour.