{"id":14241,"date":"2017-12-22T13:49:12","date_gmt":"2017-12-22T13:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=14241"},"modified":"2018-11-20T11:13:45","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T11:13:45","slug":"keep-on-organising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=14241","title":{"rendered":"‘Keep on organising’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

While many of the more than 1m workers who work over the holiday period elect to do so, often for premium pay, some workers have no choice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In part 5 of our series on working over Christmas, we speak to Unite senior shop steward and oil rig worker Phil Munro, who, because of the nature of shift patterns on the rigs, will be forced to work from now until the 3rd of January.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMy wife and I got married two years ago \u00e2\u20ac\u201c of the several years that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve known each other, the last six Christmases we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve spent apart,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explains. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been really tough on us. If there is one day out of the year that I wish more than anything to spend at home it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Christmas Day. Still, we both understand that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the nature of the job and I have to.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Phil, a scaffolder, and his colleagues only get \u00c2\u014170 a day extra for working over the Christmas period. This time of the year, the temperature drops dramatically and, even if they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t working \u00e2\u20ac\u0098offboard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 outside the rig, conditions are still freezing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s definitely difficult,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Phil notes. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut we make the best of a situation that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not ideal.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Catering staff, for example, go the extra mile to cook a nice Christmas lunch, and on many rigs, workers get most of the day off on Christmas Day after they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve tidied up the site and finished other routine tasks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWorking over the Christmas holidays has gotten a lot better since they installed Wi-Fi on the rigs about ten years ago,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Phil adds. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThat way we can Skype and FaceTime with family and friends \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not as a lonely of an experience.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Phil speaks of the struggles many oil workers have had to endure after the price of oil dropped two years ago and plunged the industry into crisis. Tens of thousands of workers have lost their jobs and many of those still working in the sector have been forced to accept worse terms and conditions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While Phil considers himself lucky that he is on a more long-term, secure contract, many oil workers only have the certainty of a fixed term contract that covers one two-week on\/two-week off shift pattern on a rig \u00e2\u20ac\u201c many face periods of joblessness when they come home.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s as close to a zero-hours contract as you can get,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explains.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why Phil sends a message of solidarity to all Unite members to stay strong in the New Year.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to keep organising,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He sends a special message of thanks to those workers in emergency services such as nurses, police, fire crew and others who work tirelessly to keep everyone safe, both over Christmas and throughout the year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWorking over Christmas for us oil rig workers is quite different \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we do it because of the set pattern and we often get the day off to sit about,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Phil notes. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut workers such as nurses do it to help people \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they work 12 hour shifts without breaks and they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop just because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Christmas. We should be thankful for all workers who must work over the holiday period but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m especially thankful for them.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While many of the more than 1m workers who work over the holiday period elect to do so, often for premium pay, some workers have no choice.   In part 5 of our series on working over Christmas, we speak to Unite senior shop steward and oil rig worker Phil Munro, who, because of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9514,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[648,551,213],"wps_subtitle":"Oil rig worker Phil says members should stay strong this Christmas","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14241"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14241"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14250,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14241\/revisions\/14250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}