2009 Lindsey Oil Refinery strikes

The 2009 Lindsey Oil Refinery strikes were a series of wildcat strikes that affected the energy industry in the United Kingdom in 2009. The action involved workers at around a dozen energy sites across the UK who walked out in support of other British workers at the Total's Lindsey Oil Refinery. The Lindsey Oil Refinery construction workers went on strike because employment was not offered to them on a £200 million construction contract to build a hydro desulphurisation unit at the site.

On 28 January 2009, approximately 800 of Lindsey Oil Refinery's local contractors went on strike following the appointment by the Italian construction contractor IREM of several hundred European (mainly Italian and Portuguese) contractors on the site at a time of high unemployment in the local and global economy. The action attracted considerable media interest.

Workers contended that the strike was in defence of a national agreement determining wages and conditions in the industry.

The protests were largely portrayed in the British media as being solely about the use of the European Union's Posted Workers Directive to discriminate against British workers, prompting Unite the union to make a statement on 4 February to refute xenophobic comments in the media. Since European Union law enshrines the right to the freedom of movement for workers between EU member states, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "When I talked about British jobs, I was talking about giving people in Britain the skills, so that they have the ability to get jobs which were at present going to people from abroad, and actually encouraging people to take up the courses and the education and learning that is necessary for British workers to be far more skilled for the future." Asked for his message to people considering the wildcat strikes, he said: "That that's not the right thing to do and it's not defensible." Italian and Portuguese construction workers, living on barges in nearby docks, were set to starting work there. British trade unions claimed Britons were not given any opportunity to apply for the posts.

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