I back this strike !!

[Fred Bloggs]

OK here's some more info- The erection contract was subbed by Jacobs Engineering (an American EPC company with offices in Reading, Manchester, Glasgow etc) to the Italian company IREM. Some of the design work for this job was done in Manchester, I turned down a gig on the project over a year ago. It is normal for an EPC company to do this. I would think that due to site union agreements, the Italian workers will be paid the same fixed union agreed rate for erection work. I'm not sure but I would think that Welders, Fitters, Riggers etc.. will probably be getting about £8 to £10 per hour, same as UK workers would get. On Humberside, as in many industrial regions of the UK, there is a very large pool of blokes who work on contracts like this because the former big employers in these areas, ship building, coal mines, steel works, chemical co's etc.. have all either disappeared or downsized substantially over the years leaving behind a very large pool of skilled casual workers. Notice how all the blokes on strike on the telly are in their 50's or 60's? Bearing in mind these blokes probably get about 6 months a year work if they're lucky and survive on pathetic wages as skilled men, is it surprising they are on strike? I share a common background with those blokes, I came through the same industries and I'm lucky because I got on my bike and studied to be a process engineer rather than stay as a fitter. If I was a fitter still, I'd be stood outside the gates with them.

[DodgyAgent]

The reason the Italians have got the jobs is because they were the first to put their hands up

[DodgyAgent]

No, I said that we can't know what will be succesful. All we really know is what hasn't worked in the past, and protectionism is one of those ideas that's failed. Better to try something that might be succesful than something which we know will fail.

The difference now is that the jobs are being protected by the Italians from the locals.

[Cyberman]

It's gonna really kick-off when people realise that all of the Nuclear Power station building, which is absolutely decades of work, has been outsourced to the Poles via the french company, and that they are not hiring any British workers either !!!