Energy / Unite launches campaign to preserve North Sea oil and gas jobs
A CAMPAIGN to protect oil and gas jobs and to “keep the North Sea working” has been launched by union Unite.
The union said it would hold politicians to account for failures to protect jobs and communities ahead of May’s Scottish elections.
Launching the Keep the North Sea Working campaign today (Monday), Unite said it would ask all Scottish politicians to back its demand for a “no compulsory redundancy pledge”.
It said this would preserve jobs, pay and conditions across the industry.
And it will ask all the leaders of Scotland’s political parties to outline how their party will support oil and gas jobs.
The union said North Sea oil and gas workers and their communities deserve to know how MSPs plan to preserve jobs, pay and conditions across the industry.
The campaign to pressure Scottish politicians has been launched “due to the jobs crisis unfolding in the oil and gas sector”, Unite said.
It claimed that up to 1,000 oil and gas jobs could be lost in the North Sea every month up until 2030, with a major factor being “government policies” towards a just transition away from oil and gas.
The union launched its campaign as oil and gas prices continue to rise and supplies become unstable due to the ongoing Iran war and wider crisis engulfing the Middle East.
Unite’s general secretary Sharon Graham said that energy policies in both Holyrood and Westminster were “putting jobs and energy security at risk.
“Blocking oil and gas production in the North Sea, especially now, is an act of monumental political self-harm,” she said.
“Unite’s message to all politicians is clear. With energy and fuel bills set to rocket due to the Iran war, you need to stop the offshoring of our carbon responsibilities, keep the North Sea working and fund a concrete plan for jobs.
“We simply cannot let go of one rope before we have hold of another.”
The union’s lead industrial officer for the oil and gas sector, Bob MacGregor, said Scotland’s oil and gas workers “feel abandoned by Scottish politicians”.
“The empty promises of a just transition ring hollow because there are no credible alternatives at scale to replace the tens of thousands of oil and gas jobs being lost,” he said.
“Scotland simply can’t sustain this level of industrial devastation.
“North Sea oil and gas workers play an indispensable role in energy security and supply, which is even more critical right now as war rages across the Middle East.”
“Scottish politicians can’t continue to bury their heads in the sand because it is an act of national self-sabotage, we are now challenging them to support union jobs and the communities they sustain.”
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