No Ban Without a Plan petition launched as Unite calls to protect oil and gas jobs

In this article it outlines its campaign and says the future of UK oil and gas is at stake.

The UK's leading union, which represents thousands of members in the offshore fuel industry, is behind a growing campaign in Scotland calling on the new Labour government not to block new licenses for oil and gas exploration in the North Sea until there is a genuine programme for just transition of work.

SIGN THE PETITION: Unite is calling for people to show their support by signing its No Ban Without A Plan petition - CLICK HERE. 

VIEW 360 PHOTO: Click on the image below to look up, down and all around to see how Unite are driving home their campaign message to millions of road users with digital billboards at the side of busy roads throughout Scotland, include this one in Edinburgh.

Its No Ban Without A Plan message is bring driven home on billboards to reach millions of road users on strategic transport routes in Scotland.

Banners and posters are also popping up in work places and organisations where it has members and supporters - from off shore workplaces o boxing clubs and pubs.

The union believes a ban on future licences  is premature and irresponsible without a viable strategy for alternative commensurate green jobs for North Sea workers.It says it is time for Labour to make the right choice.

It is calling for support for three main policies of:

* Jobs: Create 35,000 new energy transition jobs in Scotland by 2030

* Conditions: Transitioning North Sea workers need good union jobs with pay, pensions and other conditions commensurate with their current roles

* Security: Make Britain energy self-sufficient

Unite the Union, commonly known as Unite, is one of the two largest trade unions in the UK, with over 1.2 million members in construction, manufacturing, transport, logistics and other sectors.

The general election on 4 July was a political earthquake across the UK in general, with Labour securing a huge majority and in Scotland in particular with the governing party now having 37 seats, Unite writes.

During the election campaign in Scotland one of the most hotly contested issues was the future of North Sea oil and gas workers. This issue is now at the top of the new government’s in-tray and Unite will ensure it stays there until we get a fair resolution.

Unite has made it abundantly clear that it will not allow oil and gas workers to be treated like the miners in the 1980s.

By that we mean that there can be no move to reduce oil and gas jobs until a genuine just transition is in place.

Again, words like just transition sound nice but mean little. What Unite is demanding is the creation of well paid, highly skilled, permanent roles, in the field of green and renewable energy areas. Of course there must be adequate training freely and easily provided to allow workers to transition from the fossil fuels section into renewable energy.

Sufficient employment to cover the 30,000 plus workers who operate in offshore oil and gas, as well as the many additional roles in its supply chains.

There has been plenty of talk of these jobs being created by successive governments both in Scotland and the wider UK but precious little delivery. That has to change.

As things stand Labour’s commitment not to grant any new licences for the exploration of oil and gas is preposterous. It creates a cliff edge, with companies pulling out of the North Sea before new jobs are in place and is entirely the opposite of what needs to happen.

At the moment oil and gas workers believe that the promised green jobs are simply a myth. There is absolutely no evidence of good well paid jobs on the horizon. Nor is there any definition of what a just transition job should look like. A delivery worker using an electric bike for work is not the sort of role that oil and gas workers will be looking to move into under a just transition.

A just transition for oil and gas workers won’t cost the earth. Research by Unite has found that investment into the renewable sector of around £1.1 billion a year over the coming years will create 35,000 new energy transition jobs in Scotland by 2030. While £1.1 billion may seem like a large amount, it pales into insignificance compared to the £36 billion that the oil companies made from the North Sea last year alone.

Unite’s No Ban Without a Plan is in no way a form of climate change denial. Unite knows that climate change is occurring and that urgent action must be taken, but oil and gas workers must not be the unintended victims of such policies.

Equally, in an increasingly unsustainable world where maintaining energy security is essential, there can be no lag between establishing sustainable green energy and phasing out fossil fuels.

If we don’t secure a timely, just transition, then it is inevitable we will be swapping North Sea oil and gas, to importing fossil fuels from unsavoury regimes, authoritarian countries with appalling human rights records and those where workers are heavily exploited and where environmental policies are either non-existent or simply ignored. Unite works hard to protect members rights and ensure they have the right representation in their workplace, as well as making voices heard in Government debate and decision-making.

READ MORE: For more information, to sign the No Ban Without a Plan petition or join Unite visit https://actionnetwork.org/forms/no-ban-without-a-plan?

LINKS:

Website:  www.unitetheunion.org

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Unite4WorkersEconomy

Twitter: @uniteeconomy