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From The Socialist newspaper, 2 February 2022
Scunny scaffs strike restarts with a bang, barricades and a win!
Picket outside British Steel, photo Alistair Tice (Click to enlarge)
Alistair Tice, Sheffield Socialist Party
Scunthorpe scaffolders' first week of renewed strike action in 2022 (after successfully reballoting following 12 weeks of strike action before Christmas) kicked off with a real bang - with flares, barricades and a win!
Two days before the strike restarted on 26 January, Unite the Union organised co-ordinated protests in all four UK nations against Actavo, the contractor who refuses to pay its 60 scaffolders at British Steel Scunthorpe the national agreement rate for the job.
Promised talks between Actavo and client British Steel, with Unite produced nothing, so on the 27 January, a prestigious industry awards ceremony at a swanky London club was rudely interrupted by Unite, the Blacklist Support Group and the National Shop Stewards Network activists, with banners, noise and flares.
Next morning, a barricade went up again across the Gate A entrance to the steel plant, blocking incoming traffic for hours.
And on 31 January, strikers paid a visit to Lindsey Oil Refinery at Immingham. It's the scene of the 2009 engineering construction workers' strike to protect the national agreement, which spread like wildfire across the country.
There, the Scunny scaffs got support from the scaffolders working for Altrad, a company that has been scabbing on the strike at British Steel. This threat to disrupt Altrad work on other sites resulted in Altrad promising to pull out of the British Steel plant while the Actavo strike is on, quite a result. Now the strikers will target other scabbing scaffolding firms to get them off as well.
The renewed strike action and intensified leverage campaign is bringing this long-running dispute to a head. British Steel is threatening Actavo, Actavo is threatening the workers, but after starting industrial action one year ago, the strikers are hardened and emboldened. As the Unite shop steward said: "We've got them by the bollocks!"
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In The Socialist 2 February 2022:
News
Tories attack UC recipients with 'get any job' threat
NHS mandatory vaccination to be ditched
NI rise piled onto shoulders of the lowest paid
Gas and electric bills set to soar by 50% this year
Covering basic costs is hard, and it's getting worse
International news
Ukraine: Workers' unity needed
Northern Ireland: Bloody Sunday 50 years on
School students strike in Austria
France: Education workers and students walkout
TUSC
Dave Nellist standing for Birmingham Erdington
Why a socialist candidate for Birmingham Erdington is vital
Hackney Unison to encourage anti-cuts candidates
Portsmouth: Council workers leaving and tenants' double whammy
Workers fighting back
The winter strike wave escalates as workers fight back and win
NHS workers begin strike for 15% and against outsourcing
Victory at NewVIc college! 'The picket line gives us power'
Coventry bins: all-out against strike-breaking Labour council
Scunny scaffs strike restarts with a bang, barricades and a win!
Campaigns news
Tories sinking, workers rising - help fund the socialist fightback
May Day Greetings: Back the paper that backs the working class
Why I joined: I'm tired of austerity and status quo
Socialist Students getting organised for 2 March walkout
Review
Belfast: Worth watching portrayal of previously airbrushed workers' unity
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2021