Notes from the Class Struggle on the Humber

 

Something unprecedented has happened, my old town has made it to the local news and even bagged the top spot, and without a drop of blood. The town of Immingham was featured on ITV's regional news program Calendar. Unfortunately it's not good news, it's pretty grim in fact.

 

After serious mismanagement by its owners, the Lindsey Oil Refinery (LOR) is shutting down risking thousands of jobs, and the closure will open a big black hole in the economy of the southern bank of the Humber river. This story is very similar to Scunthorpe's Steel works, which was facing a physical as well as financial collapse and forced the government to step in to keep it open. Scunthorpe is just 20 miles away as the crow flies, these two developments show that the entire region and its heavy industries are in a crisis.

Before the news broke yesterday (22nd of June) I was already made aware of how bad things were going there. I used to work on LORs satellite sites in the neighbouring docklands and have friends and family who work on the refinery in various grades and roles and know many more who have since retired. The refineries cast a big shadow, and I mean that literally as well as figuratively. In addition to being a major source of employment for the towns and villages dotted around them, the chimney stacks can be seen at nearly every part of the town.

 The mood is bleak here, I've been told today (23rd) there will be a march up to the refinery and will try and get details. In the meantime, here are some facts not covered in the ITV Calendar report.

LOR is one of two refineries built in-between the port town of Immingham (Im-Ing-Um) and south Killingholme. It employs around 400 permanent staff but also employs many more as contractors and temporary workers. Shutdowns and periodic maintenance can see the number of workers active on the site balloon into the thousands. It produces various kinds of petroleum, including aviation fuel, which means a knock-on effect beyond the local area is likely.

Already LORs tanker drivers, around 200 people have been made redundant, they were informed of this via Microsoft Teams call. The rest of the staff are in limbo, with discussions ongoing. My friends still working there are updating CVs and looking for other work while they await updates.

The owners of Prax the company that has brought LOR to the point of collapse have gone to Dubai. Funny they have enough money for that. And are generally unresponsive to request for comments or information.

I was working on Immingham docks when Prax took over LOR and I remember there was some disquiet and alarm back then due to the company having no background in refining, several LOR inspectors I knew were convinced the refinery was done at that point, it looks like those fears were correct it just took a little longer to become apparent.

LOR's neighbouring refinery Conoco Phillips (pronounced as Ko-No-Ko by the locals, but is pronounced Kon-O-Ko by the owners) is owned by the US based Phillips 66 and is interested in LORs storage tanks and industrial rail links but produces different grades of fuel so probably will not be interested in the refining systems of LOR. It's doubtful that the entire infrastructure will go, it seems likely that it will be stripped and broken up by other firms, how much will remain and how many jobs will be saved by this asset redistribution remains to be seen.

I was informed that LOR has enough crude to last until the 28th with several vessels standing by in the Humber and the North Sea with fuel oil for LOR that could extend the operational time further, but its up in the air as to if that'll happen.

I have also heard that two other refineries in the UK (out of 6 total) that are looking at a similar winding down but have no details at yet.

You may remember that back in 2009 LOR and Conoco were the epicentre of a wave of wildcat strikes throughout the industry that spread throughout the UK. At the time I was in Hull studying, but my stepdad was involved with the Scaffolders, he's since retired but still hears things from his mates still there. He told me about the planned march and was one of the people interviewed in the Calendar report. Though they cut out most of his commentary on strategic economic interests and big global firms that can asset strip and then relocate.

Based on his and others comments, I don't think a repeat of 09 militancy is likely due to demoralisation of the workforce. Though, despair can turn to anger very quickly, especially if the feelings of abandonment and being ripped off continue. I'll monitor the situation.

24th of July

 UNITE held a protest rally outside Grimsby town hall, I do not know if the planned march on the refinery took place, a friend who works at the refinery was too depressed to meet me on Wednesday (23rd). I believe this protest was replacement or the people telling me about the march were mistaken. If I hear anything definitive, I'll update. I was in Grimsby working that day, not too far away from the protest, but it ended and dispersed before I could clock off.

Bear in mind this is all second hand, but I have attended these types of protests before in the same location with some of the same organisers. This seems to have been a "going through the motions" affair. The speakers were local politicians including the Conservative MP Martin Vickers and Greater Lincolnshire's first Mayor, the Reform party's Andrea Jenkyns (pictured). This worries me as coupled with the demoralisation I have noticed that much of the criticism is aimed at the owners of Prax being foreigners, and the UK selling its strategic assets to large foreign corporations. There is room for Reform and the right wing of the Conservatives to co-opt these sentiments and build up support within economically depressed areas and threatened sections of the labour force. I'm also surprised that the respectable TUC unions are already collaborating with Reform, especially given that the Mayor isn't a relevant official. I was under no illusions that the appeal model of industrial bargaining that the TUC endorses would mean they would attempt to curry favour with far-right officials but I thought it'd take a bit longer.

Personally speaking, the collapse of LOR and Scunthorpe steel works were the result of general economic trends and a culture that weakened regulations and reformed business administration in a manner that gave the owners the freedom to maximise profit in ways that wrecked the overall firms. The image that comes to my mind is a mining company demanding a shaft be sunk so deep that it eventually collapses the entire coal field. The Miners are trapped below the earth, their families are panicking on the surface, and the owners have flown away to a mansion on some tropical island. I don't think the passports of the boss matter nearly as much as the fact that there is a boss and that they are able to stay wealthy and get wealthier out of the impoverishment of others.

Going back to the Tories/Reform/other reactionaries, not only is a deep concern that they seem to be capable of exploiting misery to spread their ideology and build up support, these disasters are the fruits of the economic policies they promote and the Labour government maintains. None of these political factions are offering an alternative solution, they're using this to score points. They are all in favour of capitalism, and they are all in favour of the specific version of capitalism that enables the stripping of assets and embezzlement that can sink nationally important industries. Reform, especially promote and support letting businesses have a free hand in everything. People are pissed off with Labour's reaction to what's happening here, however I do not beleive the situation would be improved by replacing them with the Conservative Party or Reform or any of the others. 

For a couple years the regions of North/North East Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire have seen growing support for nationalisation of industries, infrastructure and utilities. I don't know if its met majority support yet but it is now a common point of view. The situation on LOR has been strengthening that sympathy. I think its an understandable sentiment if you live here, we're part of the British equivalent to Rust Belt in the United States, but I'm old enough to remember that nationalised companies can also experience crisis and collapse, at best its a stop gap measure, one that could (but not guaranteed) prevent the egregious examples of what's happened here and in Scunthorpe but I wish more people round here would dream deeper. 

In other news, the Government has confirmed keeping LOR open for three more weeks to attract a buyer. I haven't seen much detail, but I assume that means some crude vessels were allowed to dock, as a refinery cannot run without oil to refine. Or they could've decided to shut the refinery down in stages. The government has also said it is funding a "comprehensive Training Guarantee", I don't know what that means, and I don't think anyone else does either. This has not brought relief to anyone nor calmed the situation at all. 

Many people are angry with the government's response, or more accurately the lack of response, three weeks isn't much time to conclude a deal nor provide much security for the employees. There have been claims that the government isn't more supportive due to Net Zero commitments. With Tories and Reform especially banging that drum. I don't know Ed Miliband the Energy Secretary, but that doesn't make much sense to me since the Net Zero framework was drawn up by the previous Conservative governments and LOR produces fuel oil for cars and planes, it has a pipeline directly connecting it to Heathrow. 

Electric cars are becoming a common site and I know prototype electric planes exist now, but I don't think the government is planning to switchover to 100% electric automobiles and electric aviation industry by Autumn this year. That seems too ambitious and radical for the current PM's tastes.

I suspect that the actual reason for the government's actions are that they do not want to spend the considerable sum of money taking the refinery over and running. They seem to be set on wishing that a private sector buyer will show up and save the day.  

Appendix:

This isn't related to LORs troubles but does concern the reporting of it. The Calendar news segment is in my opinion a good case study in how the news media can manipulate a narrative into existence. The core of the reporting reflects what I've been told, but several people I know were upset with how Immingham was portrayed.

During the report it stated that Immingham was already expressing depression and showed two shots, one a very tight focus on an empty shop unit and a boarded up street.

Now Immingham is not a boom town but quite a few people thought this was manipulative, and I agree with them. Regarding the first shot, the town's civic centre does have some unoccupied units but the reason that shot was so tight because the units next to it are occupied which would conflict with the narrative. 

The second shot concerns a street I used to ride my bike down to get to work on the docks. That street is indeed boarded up, but that is because Associated British Ports (ABP), the region's other giant Industrial concern, bought out the houses and businesses on that street as part of a major expansion plan that will take many years to complete. Before the buyout, that street was full of active businesses.

 Of course, this manipulation is practically benign and seems to have been done to reinforce the facts on the ground and not conjure up a narrative. Anyone who lives in the area knows you don't have to work to give Immingham a bad reputation, it's been tarred and feathered for years by the county snobs. I just feel it's important to keep a critical mindset even when presented with a narrative you sympathise with.