{"id":5669,"date":"2015-09-14T15:19:07","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T14:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=5669"},"modified":"2015-09-15T10:45:10","modified_gmt":"2015-09-15T09:45:10","slug":"paying-the-price-for-industrys-failures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=5669","title":{"rendered":"Paying the price for industry&#8217;s failures"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Unite EC member Jane Stewart spoke at the TUC conference today (September 14) in support of a motion highlighting the current issues members in the offshore oil and gas industry now face.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is the most serious situation that the offshore unions have experienced in the North Sea,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she told Congress.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFollowing the continuing collapse in the price of Brent Crude, we face massive job losses.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Jane noted that oil experts Wood Mackenzie predict half of the oil and gas fields in the North Sea could be closed in the next five years.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWith 320 fields in production,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthey predict the closures could result in as much as a 44 per cent drop in production.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Jane highlighted the many attacks that oil and gas workers have had to endure as the industry fails to come to grips with the current crisis.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015b5,500 direct jobs have been lost in recent months and as many as 65,000 jobs could be lost to the sectors in total,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bInvestment has been slashed and only 38 new fields are expected to come on-stream over the next five years.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is expected that by 2019, companies will be spending more in dismantling North Sea facilities than developing new fields.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis has taken place against a backdrop of oil companies making billions in the past, failing to invest in the future and not anticipating the current crisis,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Jane added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd our members \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and those of RMT, GMB, Nautilus and BALPA &#8211; who risk their lives working in one of this most dangerous of industries &#8211; are being asked to pay the price for these failures.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Jane explained that Unite and the RMT are balloting in the catering side of the industry, and that Unite also \u00e2\u20ac\u015bhas a very serious situation\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 in regard to the union\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s agreement with operating contractors which they hope to resolve.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Jane told Congress that there \u00e2\u20ac\u015bneeds to be a serious reassessment of the situation rather than continuing shut downs.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe should also learn from our colleagues in Norway where there is ongoing discussion in regard to the Norwegian Shelf,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFinally,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Jane concluded, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthere is the failure to have an independent public enquiry into helicopter operations in the North Sea and we reiterate the vital need for a public enquiry into all aspects of offshore safety.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unite EC member Jane Stewart spoke at the TUC conference today (September 14) in support of a motion highlighting the current issues members in the offshore oil and gas industry now face. &nbsp; &nbsp; \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is the most serious situation that the offshore unions have experienced in the North Sea,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she told Congress. &nbsp; &nbsp; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5670,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[214,392],"wps_subtitle":"Unite EC member highlights offshore workers' struggles","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5669"}],"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=5669"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5718,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5669\/revisions\/5718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}