Workers due to man picket line outside £200m power plant for second day running

HUNDREDS of workers are due to walk out tomorrow for the second day running on a huge construction site in Hull.
The £200m Energy Works power plant which is being built in HullThe £200m Energy Works power plant which is being built in Hull
The £200m Energy Works power plant which is being built in Hull

Work on the £200m Energy Works site on Cleveland Street stalled today, after workers manned a picket line in protest over issues, including fire alarms.

It follows a walk out last week by around 280 of the 480-strong workforce over concerns about alarms not working or being inaudible on the site.

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Shaune Clarkson, GMB Regional Organiser, said he and Unite union representatives were due to meet clients and contractors tomorrow morning and they would put a proposal on the table.

He said: “We will be meeting at 7am and I am expecting the men to do a peaceful demonstration as they have done today.”

Workers outside the site yesterday alleged that problems with the alarms had not been resolved and expressed frustration that minor but “niggling” issues like broken toilets and cabins with no drying gear had been raised through the proper channels to no avail.

Mr Clarkson said as far as he was concerned the site was safe.

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He said: “There’s a build-up of issues that has gone on for too long and the alarms was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

He said four additional alarms had been fitted on the site on Monday.

Principal contractor Stuttgart-based M+W Group was unavailable for comment.

However following last Thursday’s walk out, Energy Works (Hull) Ltd issued a statement saying an independent health and safety audit “confirmed the site is being operated and controlled in a safe manner”.

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It added that M+W Group “anticipates a swift resolution to this matter, which will see the full resumption of works on site.”

The plant, which sits alongside the river Hull, was granted a permit last year from the Environment Agency to take a maximum of 315,000 tonnes of waste a year, including black-bin “residual” household waste, commercial and industrial waste and waste wood.

A technology called fluidised bed gasification will convert the waste into a gas that turns a turbine to create electricity.

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