Hundreds of workers at British oil refineries downed tools today in protest at the dismissal of some 650 contractors by French company Total at a plant hit by wildcat strikes, according to dpa. Hopes of a breakthrough in the dispute at the Total-owned Lindsey refinery in Lincolnshire, eastern Britain, were dashed when talks arranged by mediators failed to go ahead. The wildcat action spread to four refineries across Britain, but supplies were not affected. Total sent out the dismissal notices late Thursday following a week of wildcat strikes at the Lindsey plant in a dispute over 51 redundancies. Earlier, the number of workers being given dismissal notices was reported to be 900. The Lindsey refinery is the third-largest in Britain. The workers claim that an agreement had been made with Total after strikes in February whereby there would be no job cuts at the plant while foreign workers were being employed there. This agreement they said had been broken. Total denies that such an agreement existed. In a statement, Total said the workers had been involved in "an unofficial, illegal walk out. "Total can confirm, with regret, that our contractors have now started the process of ending the current employment contracts for their workforce on the HDS-3 construction project," the company said. The Lindsey plant was at the centre of an unofficial strike earlier this year over the employment of "non-British" workers. A representative of the Unite union said staff had believed there was a local agreement in place not to cut any jobs while those foreign contactors were employed.
