‘Death by a thousand cuts’

Unite delegate Cliff Bowen gave a rousing speech in support of a composite on industrial energy prices on Monday (September 29) at Labour Party Conference.

Cliff highlighted the importance of “secure, internationally competitive energy prices” to support the UK’s critical industrial base, which includes many sectors such as steel, chemicals, textiles, refineries, pharma companies, glass, our railways, chemicals and oil and gas.

“We need the government to have a clear industrial strategy to support the key sectors and their skilled workforces as they face the twin challenges of global instability and climate change,” he said.

Cliff added that he spoke from experience – he represents over 35,000 oil and gas workers in the North Sea where, he said, “we are losing 1000 jobs a month – death by a thousand cuts. This cannot continue”.

Cliff went on to call for a “genuine workers’ just transition to low-carbon technologies with sustainable high skilled jobs”.

This transition must include like-for-like job replacements, reskilling, and proper protections for any jobs at risk, he noted.

“Grangemouth showed us what failure looks like: 100 years of refining, ended; over 2,000 jobs lost; a broken £200m government promise, and a community devastated,” Cliff told conference.

He slammed the “empty promises of just transition ringing in [Grangemouth] workers’ ears”, adding that workers there were still waiting for the promised £200m.

“We cannot repeat this,” he said, noting that Unite members at Lindsey Oil Refinery face similar threats, with over one thousand jobs, plus many more in the supply chain, at risk.

He called it a “disgraceful situation” that urgently needs government intervention to be resolved.

Reiterating Unite’s campaign slogan ‘no ban without a plan’, he called for a transition to a low carbon economy that “cannot be left to the market”.

“We demand a fully funded workers’ plan for jobs at the heart of our industrial policy,” he said. “We will no longer accept decarbonisation by deindustrialisation: no more disgraceful closures like we’ve seen at Grangemouth.”

Concluding, Cliff urged support for the composite to “support UK jobs, and support workers”.

By Hajera Blagg

Photo by Mark Thomas