Ferrybridge: Workers down tools over unpaid wages

Ferrybridge power station protest 29.3.17, photo A Tice (Click to enlarge)

Yorkshire Socialist Party

Construction workers on the Ferrybridge multi-fuel project in West Yorkshire stopped work on 12 January because workers' reported that wages had not been paid into their bank accounts.

The firm which holds part of the contract on the job - Mostostal Zabrze - is a Polish company and the workforce is made up of around 50% British workers and 50% Polish workers.

Since before Christmas the main topic of conversation on the job every Thursday has been "are we getting paid".

On 12 January Polish and British workers stayed in the cabin when they were told that the Polish workers had not been paid their monthly wages and were now into their sixth week without pay.

Keith Gibson, GMB union rep, proposed that all workers sit in the cabin until wages are paid.

At the same time as Carillion has gone into liquidation, at Ferrybridge there is now this dispute.

After the meeting many of the Polish workers who had not joined the union were queuing up to join.

This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 17 January 2018 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.

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