Belabored: Wildcat Oil Strikes and the Energy Crisis, with Ewan Gibbs
Belabored: Wildcat Oil Strikes and the Energy Crisis, with Ewan Gibbs
In Scotland, Grangemouth oil refinery workers are just the latest to realize their power after two years of pandemic, when they were deemed essential—and watched industry profits spike—while they accepted pay freezes.
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Last week, workers at the Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland walked off the job in a wildcat strike over pay. These subcontracted workers, as well as others at oil industry sites around Britain, are just the latest critical infrastructure workers to realize their power after two years of pandemic, when they were deemed essential—and watched industry profits spike—while they accepted pay freezes. This is all happening against a backdrop of swelling anger across Britain as prices, particularly energy prices, spike and are predicted to go even higher this winter. Unions are calling strikes and organizing protests with community groups to demand action. Ewan Gibbs, a historian of energy, industry, work, and protest, a lecturer in global inequalities at the University of Glasgow, and the author of Coal Country: The Meaning and Memory of Deindustrialization in Postwar Scotland, joins the podcast to talk about the strikes, the history of energy workers’ organizing, new organizing, and renationalizing energy.
We also look at the launch of the Enough is Enough campaign, the return of rail strikes across Britain, the ongoing union drives at Starbucks with Starbucks union activists Ben South and Stephanie Heslop, a new bill in California that could move fast food workers toward sectoral bargaining, and wildcat strikes at Amazon. For Argh, we consider the rise of workplace productivity surveillance, and the labor of the crossword-puzzle industry.
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If you’re interested in advertising on the show, please email ads@dissentmagazine.org. And as always, if you have any questions, comments, or tips, email us at belabored@dissentmagazine.org
NewsEvie Breese, Amazon wildcat strikes enter second week as UK workers protest over pay, Big Issue
Simon Childs & Polly Smythe, Hundreds of Amazon Workers Stage Wildcat Strike Over ‘Kick in the Teeth’ Pay Offer, Novara Media
London bus drivers set to strike on same days as Underground and rail workers, ITV
India Lawrence, Everything you need to know about the tube strike in August, TimeOut
Megan Camponovo, Fast food workers demand FAST recovery act passage at state capitol, FOX40
Benjamin Sachs, California’s FAST Act: A Promising Move Toward Sectoral Regulation, OnLabor
Danielle Wiener-Bronner, Starbucks asks labor board to halt mail-in union ballots, CNN
Abraham Kenmore, Augusta Starbucks union organizer fired for ‘March on Boss’ prior to strike, Augusta Chronicle
Jake Johnson, Store Walkout Over Firing of Starbucks Union Organizer Racks Up 20 Million Views on TikTok, Common Dreams
Itzel Luna, Two more California Starbucks stores go on strike, joining Santa Cruz workers at the picket line, Los Angeles Times
ConversationEwan Gibbs, University of Glasgow
@EwanGibbs on Twitter
Simon Childs, Workers Stage Wildcat Strike at Major Oil Refinery, Novara Media
Joanna Partridge, Workers block road at Ineos Grangemouth oil refinery in pay dispute, Guardian
Andrew Fisher, What nationalising energy companies would cost – and how to do it, openDemocracy
Argh, I wish I’d written that!Sarah: Jodi Kantor and Arya Sundaram, The Rise of the Worker Productivity Score, New York Times
Michelle: Matt Hartman, Inside the Elite, Underpaid, and Weird World of Crossword Writers, The New Republic
