Hundreds turn out for power station march (From Western Telegraph)

Hundreds turn out for power Pembroke Power Station march

9:32am Monday 22nd February 2010 in County News

Hundreds of protesters turned out at Pembroke Power Station to call for more jobs for British workers at the site today (Monday).

Demonstrators gathered at the power station gates from 6am and blocked the road, preventing workers entering the site.

A queue of traffic formed on the hill leading down to the power station, with contractors, lorries and cranes delayed by as long as an hour and a half.

Although there was a significant police presence, the event passed by peacefully.

The road was clear by around 8.45am as many protesters had left to go to work, which allowed traffic to enter the site without obstruction.

The event was organised through a Facebook group titled 'Give the British jobs first @ Pembroke Power Station', by Janette Leonard, a grandmother from Aberdare.

Ms Leonard said: "I'm very pleased with the turn out. It's a cold, frosty February morning and we had a good couple of hundred of people come to support us.

"The people of Pembroke are warm and welcoming, they're not xenophobic, there's no racism absolutely nothing. What we're saying is, work with us as a community and we will build you a power station that we can be proud of," she said.

David Morris, an engineering construction worker said: "There's enough people unemployed locally to be able to fill the jobs on this site, or lads within the company who are more skilled than anyone else, so why not allow us to come here?

"This is basically a shot across the bows. If they don't start taking British labour seriously then they're going to have this on a regular occurrence."

A snapshot of the workforce on January 7th given to local MP Nick Ainger, stated that out of 373 workers, 40% of them were Pembrokeshire based, with 58.5% being based in Wales. With management removed 97.5% of the workforce were UK residents.

RWE npower said: "We take our commitment to the local community around our Pembroke site very seriously, including opportunities for local companies and individuals to be involved on the project throughout its life."

Alstom, the main contractor for the power station added:  "We have always said that around two thirds of the work that will be done at the Pembroke power station construction site, from the start to the end of the 44 month project, will be mainly done by British subcontractors. That has not changed.

"There is no truth whatsoever in claims that Alstom plans to build a labour camp or that it has submitted a planning application for floating accommodation for workers."

Many of the protesters did not believe the figures given to be true. Robert Dickie, a crane driver on the site said: "Two thirds of the workforce being British would be enough if it were true."