The wildcat strikes have been subject to a virtual media blackout at a time when profit gouging by oil and gas companies is sending household energy bills spiralling, adding to the disastrous cost-of-living crisis for millions.
Any genuine organisation of workers would have gone on to explain what action was being taken to overturn this victimisation. Instead Unite declared, “Strikes have currently been suspended to allow for renewed negotiations.”
A picketer told the WSWS, “it is time to start fighting for our rights because we run this place really. It’s thanks to us, and yet they don’t want to give us anything and treat us like we’re nothing.”
The ExxonMobil facility on the south coast of England is the largest oil refinery in the UK, supplying a sixth of all petrol stations across the country and all airports.