Strike success at Lindsey Oil Refinery and Conoco

A bit of France came to North Lincolnshire last week when around 1,000 construction workers walked off the job at Conoco and Lindsey Oil Refinery near Immingham.

Alistair Tice, Yorkshire Socialist Party

At LOR, the shop stewards were all in a PJC (Project Joint Council) meeting with the management when news came through about South Hook. Hundreds immediately walked off site and then management walked out of the meeting!

The next day, a mass meeting voted to stay out until South Hook was sorted. Then a spontaneous march down the industrial site road took place picking up pickets at the adjacent Conoco gates leading to around 800 workers blocking the road and intersection with the main arterial road into Immingham.

The police were caught completely unawares with traffic blockaded back to the Docks one way and backing up to the M180 the other. When a police van eventually arrived, two nervous coppers got out and asked "Who's in charge?" which drew the response "We are!"

One spark commented "Great result today on the two Humber refineries getting to the main crossroads and disrupting the traffic for an hour and half, felt a little French for a time especially when plod turned up and did nothing!!" Even the sun came out!

Mobiles kept going off bringing news from other plants joining the sympathy strike. Plans were made to send pickets the next morning to those sites that still needed a push. No need, by evening the bosses had caved in at South Hook. That's two rounds to the workers, now for the knock-out!

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