In the area where I work there are two oil refineries and two LNG terminals plus an oil storage facility. Recently due to the economic crisis workers at all of these sites have been made redundant, which is pretty much uniform across the UK and even world. With the prospect of work coming in the form of new building projects such as the planned gas fired power stations and nuclear power stations there is hope for workers who are out of work. However due to the recession the fat cats want to cut costs. As a result they will use the company who will charge the least. Its unfortunate that overseas companies can do the job for less than the British companies. This is where the problem began, workers recently made redundant were horrified when local jobs when to an Italian company who would use Italian and Portuguese labour.
A lot of my colleagues  regularly work overseas in places such as Kazakhstan, Dubai and other countries. When this work is offered people jump at the chance. Don’t blame the workers its not their fault at all. Its the system capitalism. To quote one of my colleagues “ foreign workers are in the same boat as us, if were offered work we would take it” the recent wave of redundancies had nothing to do with overseas workers “taking our jobs”. Its the whole greedy system that is to blame. In an the engineering industry especially with oil and gas industry, the job takes you world wide. Contractors can work all over the world. As im sure the media is pushing this on the front pages they are doing nothing to defend the foreign workers who also face threats of redundancy and unemployment. Who can blame the workers who just want to work and support their family? What Happened to international Worker solidarity?"
and another article from the AF blog:
Scottish Unite official Bobby Buirds' comments that the current strike are "not against foreign workers, it's against foreign companies discriminating against British labour" confirms that the strike is against bosses, not fellow (foreign) workers. The foreign workers are just doing what any of us would do if we were desperate for work, but the media have turned this into some "foreigners go home" trip again. Foreign workers regularly suffer appalling living and working conditions, along with low wages and little in the way of representation. Given that the contract was awarded to the lowest-bidding tender, it is likely that these are the same conditions being faced by the Italian workers on Humberside.
If this had been any other strike against bosses, say for pay or safety issues, there would have been no national media coverage, save for the union bulletins and the socialist papers. However, this strike, despite the assurances of the unions, allows the media to latch on to an imaginary wave of xenophobia and whip up the country into a frenzy. Sky News and newspapers such the Daily Mail, the Sun, Daily Telegraph, Daily Express and the Times have all jumped at this opportunity, despite being the first media outlets to criticise any strike action amongst workers. By polarising the debate into 'native' versus 'foreign' workers, these capitalist newspapers are shifting the argument from a workers versus bosses position to workers versus workers. This tactic of dividing the working class is not new, and is exactly the kind of behaviour we should be expecting from the ruling class in the midst of a financial crisis where the potential for unified working class organisation is at it's most potent.
This strike has been racialised beyond belief. Don't fall into the trap of attacking foreign workers, unite against the bosses you have nothing in common with.
More information:
http://libcom.org/news/unofficial-refinery-walkouts-over-foreign-workers-spread-30012009
http://libcom.org/news/energy-wildcats-continue-spread-across-uk-02022009
www.afed.org.uk/blog