BRITAIN could face power cuts later this month when workers at a major power station in North Yorkshire down tools over pay, the Unite union warned today.
About 180 Unite members at the biomass-powered site at Drax, near Selby, will strike on February 20 and 27 and on seven more dates in March and April, the union said.
The announcement of the walkouts follows Drax Group bosses offering employees a below-inflation 8 per cent wage rise, according to Unite. The company claims that the offer actually amounts to 10 per cent.
“This is a classic case of greed by a company which is already generating eye-watering profits,” Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said.
“Drax is cynically seeking to boost its bonanza profits further by forcing workers to take a real-terms pay cut.”
A spokesperson for the firm claimed that it has “robust plans in place” to ensure operations continue if strikes take place.
Management is “deeply disappointed” that Unite has not accepted its “generous full and final pay settlement worth 10 per cent, plus a £2,000 lump sum,” the spokesperson added.
Not if they already decided the dates – the only way you could cause power cuts would be to walk out when demand was very high and the wind wasn’t blowing. They are 5% of generating capacity, and we only get close to max generating capacity between 5pm and 8pm. Right now we’re getting most power from wind (40%) and gas (38%). There’s enough idle gas plants to cover a drop in wind, but if that went to zero (and it was dark so no solar), and drax went offline at the same time, there’s only a spare 3% in the continental connectors. So you might possibly have to take the aluminium smelters off line for two hours in that case to cover the missing 2%. You certainly wouldn’t be seeing domestic black outs – they’re too small to have that sort of effect. To do that you’d have to have wildcat strikes at a lot of gas power plants as well just at the moment there was no wind over the whole north sea. So without warning – which would be illegal. And by April you’d have solar still running during peak hours so there’s a limited window for any chance of an effect.
(No workers at a wind or solar plant so strikes don’t stop them)
There’s generally a lot of unrest in the UK power industry at the moment. Plenty of big companies are making big profits and yet continuing to shaft their staff on pay.
Trouble is that the corporate goons who run these firms don’t really understand just how much they rely upon their engineering staff…
Is this going be like the same power cuts we saw over winter? Oh wait the wasn’t any, just more fear mongering from news outlets for clicks, and justification for their employment.
“Drax Power Station provides 12% of the UK’s renewable power, providing a secure, reliable and flexible source of renewable energy to support more intermittent renewables, such as wind and solar”
12% seems a lot, can we get this 12% from eslewhere or is Power cuts a given for some?
5 comments
BRITAIN could face power cuts later this month when workers at a major power station in North Yorkshire down tools over pay, the Unite union warned today.
About 180 Unite members at the biomass-powered site at Drax, near Selby, will strike on February 20 and 27 and on seven more dates in March and April, the union said.
The announcement of the walkouts follows Drax Group bosses offering employees a below-inflation 8 per cent wage rise, according to Unite. The company claims that the offer actually amounts to 10 per cent.
“This is a classic case of greed by a company which is already generating eye-watering profits,” Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said.
“Drax is cynically seeking to boost its bonanza profits further by forcing workers to take a real-terms pay cut.”
A spokesperson for the firm claimed that it has “robust plans in place” to ensure operations continue if strikes take place.
Management is “deeply disappointed” that Unite has not accepted its “generous full and final pay settlement worth 10 per cent, plus a £2,000 lump sum,” the spokesperson added.
Not if they already decided the dates – the only way you could cause power cuts would be to walk out when demand was very high and the wind wasn’t blowing. They are 5% of generating capacity, and we only get close to max generating capacity between 5pm and 8pm. Right now we’re getting most power from wind (40%) and gas (38%). There’s enough idle gas plants to cover a drop in wind, but if that went to zero (and it was dark so no solar), and drax went offline at the same time, there’s only a spare 3% in the continental connectors. So you might possibly have to take the aluminium smelters off line for two hours in that case to cover the missing 2%. You certainly wouldn’t be seeing domestic black outs – they’re too small to have that sort of effect. To do that you’d have to have wildcat strikes at a lot of gas power plants as well just at the moment there was no wind over the whole north sea. So without warning – which would be illegal. And by April you’d have solar still running during peak hours so there’s a limited window for any chance of an effect.
(No workers at a wind or solar plant so strikes don’t stop them)
There’s generally a lot of unrest in the UK power industry at the moment. Plenty of big companies are making big profits and yet continuing to shaft their staff on pay.
Trouble is that the corporate goons who run these firms don’t really understand just how much they rely upon their engineering staff…
Is this going be like the same power cuts we saw over winter? Oh wait the wasn’t any, just more fear mongering from news outlets for clicks, and justification for their employment.
“Drax Power Station provides 12% of the UK’s renewable power, providing a secure, reliable and flexible source of renewable energy to support more intermittent renewables, such as wind and solar”
12% seems a lot, can we get this 12% from eslewhere or is Power cuts a given for some?