Staff from a billion pound US oil and gas giant have begun a 16-day strike after their employers hit them with a £10,500 pay cut. Unite the union claims that members have had thousands of pounds wiped off their salaries due to fire and rehire tactics by Baker Hughes.
Around 110 workers started strike action on Monday, August 29, with Unite accusing the oil and gas firm of “laying waste to Scottish jobs”. Unite estimates that detrimental contractual changes could wipe-off up to 29 per cent from the annual wages of Baker Hughes workers – the equivalent to a £10,500 drop in annual income.
Unite members voted for strike action by 87.3 per cent, on an 87.5 per cent per cent turnout, to defend their jobs, terms and conditions. The all-out strike action will last until the morning of September 14, with a series of 48-hour stoppages taking place until November 16.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The proposal to cut our members’ pay by over £10,000 through fire and rehire tactics is a new low for an industry plagued by corporate greed. Our members are simply not prepared to accept this and throughout the strike action they will have Unite’s full support in their fight to protect their jobs, pay and conditions.”
In June, Unite claims Baker Hughes gave workers at their Angus sites five minutes’ notice before issuing redundancy notices. The company told the workers that they have until early August to sign new contracts on vastly inferior rates of pay or face losing their jobs.
Baker Hughes, one of the largest employers in Angus, operates two sites in Montrose – at Charleton Road and Forties Industrial Estate on Brent Avenue. The company employs around 250 workers, who pioneer state-of-the-art manufacturing and engineering processes, such as industrial 3D printing and virtual reality tools, for the oil and gas industry.
It has one of the most advanced facilities of its kind after a recent £31million investment. The creation of the subsea centre of excellence in 2019 where the company is based was developed following a £4.9million Scottish Enterprise grant.
George Ramsay, Unite industrial officer said: “Unite’s members are outraged and they are prepared to take strike action right into the winter to defend their pay. It is completely unacceptable that our members could lose up to a third of their income during the worst cost of living crisis in a generation. We are determined to fight this corporate bully and our strike action will continue until we win.”
A Baker Hughes spokesperson said: “Today, a minority of employees at Baker Hughes’ Montrose site commenced discontinuous strike action in response to propose changes to shift allowances. We are disappointed to have reached this stage, having consulted extensively on an outcome which addresses both the business challenges and financial impact on employees.
“We continue to progress an employee-submitted proposal, which retains the 40 per cent shift enhancement pay, and sees employees continue to work more than 80 per cent of their current number of shifts. The majority of our employees have agreed to these new terms and conditions.
“We believe the announcement of strike action was premature: Unite the Union confirmed the proposed action on Monday, August 8 – a full day before the outcome of the consultation was announced. This meant Union members voted for strike action without having all the facts.
“We have deployed a range of contingency and safeguarding measures for our employees and customers. These include measures to ensure employees not taking part in the strike can continue to report for work, and deploying business continuity plans to ensure there will be no impact to customers.
