Unions and climate groups demand £1.9 billion of emergency funding for North Sea workers ahead of Spending Review

Pictures of the Westminster rally can be found here 

Today (Wednesday), a coalition of trade unions and climate groups are rallying outside Parliament to ask the Chancellor for an emergency funding package of £1.9 billion per year for North Sea workers ahead of the Spending Review. A funding package on this scale is urgently needed for oil and gas and supply chain workers to make the transition into renewable energy jobs, ensuring that workers and communities benefit, says the coalition. The group is also joined at the rally by politicians from Labour, SNP and the Green Party.

The call is endorsed by the largest union representing UK offshore workers, Unite the Union, as well as the National Union of Rail and Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), and Aberdeen’s Trades Union Councils. 65 climate groups including Greenpeace UK, Uplift, Friends of the Earth Scotland, Oil Change International, Global Justice Now, Extinction Rebellion and Platform are also part of the coalition. 

The £1.9 billion emergency funding package to create permanent, unionised renewable energy jobs and support the country’s oil and gas workers to transition into them is comprised of:

• £1.1 billion per year to develop permanent, local jobs in public and community-owned wind manufacturing.
• £440 million of further investment each year for ports, on top of the £1.8 billion already committed through the National Wealth Fund.
• £355 million per year to develop a dedicated training fund for offshore oil and gas workers, with match-funding from industry.

As the North Sea basin’s reserves decline, the wider oil and gas sector has lost 227,000 jobs in the past 10 years. This is despite the UK government issuing roughly 400 new drilling licences over the same period, and energy companies making record-breaking profits. 

The coalition outlines that oil and gas companies consistently fail to invest in renewable energy jobs and retraining for their workers, whilst prioritising shareholder profits and cutting or offshoring jobs that should stay here in the UK. Just last week, Harbour Energy, which has handed £1 billion to its shareholders in the past three years, announced it would cut a further 250 jobs from its offshore workforce, and two weeks ago, multinational Petroineos ceased operations at Grangemouth oil refinery without a transition plan for the workforce. 

Commenting, Mel Evans, climate team leader at Greenpeace UK, said: 

“It’s vital that we don’t leave oil and gas workers’ future in the hands of private companies who put their profits above workers’ security and the climate time and time again. 

“That’s why Rachel Reeves must commit to this emergency package of funding to protect workers and their communities. If she fails to act, she leaves their livelihoods at the mercy of greedy oil bosses and will undermine community confidence in the transition to renewable energy. 

“We urgently need a renewable energy system fit for the twenty-first century that can bring down bills, helping our energy security and the climate at the same time. But we must bring workers and communities along and ensure that wind manufacturing and renewable energy jobs stay here in the UK, rather than leaving other countries to benefit from the booming green economy.”

Claire Peden, Unite for a Workers’ Economy team lead, said: 

“The UK government must deliver a real, robust plan that guarantees good, secure jobs for oil and gas workers as part of the energy transition. So far, that promise hasn’t materialised—yet 30,000 jobs are at risk by 2030. Climate change is an urgent crisis, but it must not be working people who bear the brunt. A just transition needs to be a workers’ transition: no one must be left behind.”

Ruby Earle, Worker Transition Lead at Platform, said: 

“No worker should have to wait until crisis point before they get support, like we’ve seen in Scunthorpe. Today, unions and climate campaigners are sending a clear message to the Chancellor. We need urgent public investment that creates permanent, unionised renewable energy jobs and supports the country’s oil and gas workers to move into them. Multinationals have held us to ransom for too long. It’s time we give workers and communities a real stake in our energy industry.”

Offshore wind energy capacity has the potential to grow by as much as six times in the next 15 years. The groups state that public investment now and on this scale would create thousands of long-term, good quality and unionised manufacturing jobs, which oil and gas and supply chain workers could transition into. 

The coalition points to huge job losses at Grangemouth and Port Talbot as examples of what happens when the Government leaves the transition entirely in the hands of private companies. Rachel Reeves must step in to provide North Sea workers with the support they need to prevent the repetition of past mistakes.

Ends 

Notes to Editors

1. Contact: Greenpeace UK press office  press.uk@greenpeace.org / Florri Burton on 07971177378 
2. The coalition has submitted their demands in advance of the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review, their submission can be found here. A full list of signatories to the call for emergency funding can be found here
3. The rally is currently taking place at Abingdon Street Gardens, 5 Great College St, London SW1P 3SE
4. Speakers at the rally include Rosie Hampton, Just Transition Campaigner at Friends of the Earth Scotland; Amy Cameron, Greenpeace Programme Director; Ruby Earle, Just Transition Campaigner at Platform; Chris Hamilton, Unite the Union convenor at Grangemouth oil refinery; Claire Peden, team lead in Unite the Union’s Organising and Leverage department; Darren Procter, RMT National Secretary; John Moloney, Assistant General Secretary of PCS Union; Steven Gray, Aberdeen Trade’s Council Delegate; Kirsty Blackman, SNP Member of Parliament for Aberdeen North; Carla Denyer, Green Member of Parliament for Bristol Central; Brian Leishman, Member of Parliament for Alloa and Grangemouth
5. Last month, a petition was delivered to the UK Government, signed by more than 1 million people, calling on the UK government to deliver a fair transition to renewable energy. 
6. North Sea oil and gas firms in the UK are failing to switch their investments to renewable energy, with three-quarters planning to invest solely in continued fossil fuel production between now and 2030.