Socialist Organiser

A union for offshore workers

OILC is seeking certification as an independent trade union for offshore oil workers. It is anticipated that the process will take to two years to complete. However, OILC, for the purposes of Section 28 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act (TULRA) 1974 is already a trade union. Recruitment has commenced. It is OILC's intention to base itself in its already well-resourced headquarters in Aberdeen. Our branch fficers in Glasgow and Newcastle will remain open and we will open other offices as the need dictates. OILC will provide a legal service to its members second to none. The new union...

Norwegian union pledges support for OILC

We are informed that the British Offshore Industry Liaison Committee, OILC, will announced its transition from being a rank-and-file organisation to becoming an independent trade union later today [Friday 4 September]. Let it be known throughout the British offshore industry that OFS, Norway's leading offshore union, is applauding and welcoming your decision. We are organising 6,000 offshore workers on the Norwegian Continental Shelf; highly skilled engineers and technicians as well as utility and catering personnel; oil company employees on fixed installations as well as contracting personnel...

Rally to the rig workers!

"Trade unionism in the offshore industry is facing a crisis." That's how Ronnie MacDonald, Chair of the rank and file based Offshore Industry Liaison Committee (OILC) described the situation prior to a major meeting in London this Thursday (September 26) to discuss presenting a common trade union front to the employers. The OILC povided the organisational backbone for the unofficial strikes and rig occupations during the summer of 1989 and 1990. Oilworkers were demanding full union recongition and decent health and safety provision. Something that the employers have still not conceded. Over...

Jimmy's fast exit

The TUC was very boring indeed. It must have been because the press were interested in Jimmy Airlie. Jimmy is an AEU executive member from Scotland. He drew the attention of journalists from the quality papers with his good old-fashioned fiery conference rhetoric: "One of the few present day trade union leaders with any experience of talking to mass meetings of workers", was the way Jimmy was described. But while Jimmy was keen to perform for the cameras, the hacks and the assembled delegates, he wasn't quite so keen to see some of his own manual worker members. Every time one of the...

The offshore 'hook up' agreement: a lousy deal

In last week's SO we reported that the national union officials for the offshore oil and gas industry have signed a new 'hook up' agreement with the bosses. This article, from the offshore workers' paper Blow Out explains what's wrong with the agreement. ===== The Offshore Construction Agreement, known as the 'hook up' agreement, was for years a one-sided deal that protected the oil companies when they were most vulnerable. They got industrial peace during the construction of the production platforms in the crucial period prior to 'first oil'. In return a small minority of the offshore...

The case for a single union

The resurfacing of the single union question within the committee (OILC standing committee) in the past few months is not, I believe, unrelated to the events of last summer and the debacle that was the proposed ballot. If this committee represents anything at all it should represent the views of rank and file offshore workers. This being the case, I would find it hard to believe that members of the Committee have not experienced difficulty in promoting our policy of whole-hearted support for the official offshore unions in the teeth of what many of us have experienced to be deep-rooted...

"We need our own union"

"Let's face it, we are going nowhere at the present time. Our only hope now is to start a new single offshore union which must be run by ourselves, the offshore workers. "So I say to you the OILC, start a single offshore union right now to enable us to achieve the Continental Shelf Agreement and union recognition. "To the established unions, I say get the hell out of the North Sea and stay out, so we can manage our own affairs."

A single offshore union? Background to the debate

A major debate on strategy is opening up among activists in the offshore oil and gas industry. Up for consideration is the idea of organising a new union for offshore workers. After a magnificent campaign of unofficial strike action in the summer of 1989 and '90, union recognition and decent health and safety provision has not yet been won. Last autumn, national union leaders offered official support for a recognition ballot on the apparent condition that the rank-and-file based Offshore Industry Liaison Committee call off its unofficial strike action. The unofficial action stopped, but the...

Life before profits!

Safety is a central issue in the offshore workers' struggle. One OILC (Offshore Industry Liaison Committee) activist explained: "I get £300 a week for one of the most dangerous jobs around. So far 500 of us have died. The multinationals' propaganda goes on about 'high risk and high reward', but that's a load of rubbish as far as I'm concerned. "Safety risks are built into the rigs to save money and increase profits. Even the helicopters which take us to and from the rigs are death-traps. We call them egg-beaters. They bounce us around and rattle about. The doors sometimes swing open in mid...

Oil workers' leader speaks out: "We are into a long campaign"

Ronnie MacDonald, Chair of the rank and file based Offshore Industry Liaison Committee, describes the way the Tory anti-union laws make it very difficult to organise a successful ballot in the North Sea, and sets out what he sees as the way forward in the battle for union recognition. ===== It's a simple fact that the officials of the union are not balloting those workers who have been sacked. It's the law. It's not the union's position, you can't get round it. Once people have been sacked they no longer have an employer, and therefore cannot declare a trade dispute. The sacked workers and...

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