This is a strike against bosses

As Prime Minister Gordon Brown sought to backtrack from his pledge of "British jobs for British workers," TUC general secretary Brendan Barber spoke out against attempts to stir up racist hatred against foreign workers on the back of the dispute.

The wave of industrial unrest is set to spread further this week when nuclear power workers are expected to join more than 3,000 oil and gas workers who walked out on Friday in support of workers at Total's Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire.

The action began last Wednesday when hundreds of workers gathered at the refinery to protest against the company's decision to award a portion of the £200 million construction contract to IREM, which is set to employ up to 400 Italian and Portuguese workers to build a hydro desulphurisation unit at the site.

Unions representing the 1,000 strikers at the Lindsey refinery said that their members had not been given the opportunity of applying for jobs on the IREM contract, in what they say is a breach of EU law.

The TUC expressed sympathy for workers taking strike action in support of colleagues at the refinery, but it warned that activists from the BNP and other far-right factions were attempting to influence the strikers.

Mr Barber said: "Unions are clear that the anger should be directed at employers, not the Italian workers. No doubt some of the more distasteful elements in our towns and cities will try to use the fears of workers to stir up hatred and xenophobia.

"But I am confident that union members will direct their anger at the employers who have caused this dispute with their apparent attempt to undercut the wages, conditions and union representation of existing staff."

As demonstrations spread from Lincolnshire to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland last week, many of the protesters targeted their anger on Mr Brown over his pledge to deliver "British jobs for British workers." The PM claimed yesterday that he had only meant people would be given the skills to compete against other nationalities.

However, he condemned the strikes as indefensible as he made a frantic effort to prevent the industrial action from escalating.

He said he recognised that people were "worried" about jobs being taken by workers from other countries but stressed that Britain was part of a "single European market."

However, his stance was given short shrift by GMB general secretary Paul Kenny.

"No company should be able to discriminate against anyone on the grounds of where they were born," he said.

"You simply cannot say that only Italians can apply for jobs, as has happened in this case.

"No-one is saying that different countries cannot bid for different contracts, but what is happening here would be illegal under UK domestic law."

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