More than 200 protestors blocked access to the site of a new power station yesterday, over claims that new jobs will go to foreign workers.
The power station, being built in Pembroke by energy company RWE, will employ more than 2,000 people. But campaigners claim that the initial jobs will go to workers from other EU countries.
Protestors carrying banners blocked the road to the power station, causing a tailback of 150 cars, according to the Times.
The protest was organised by a Facebook group called “Give the British workers jobs first”. Organiser Owen Morris, an oil depot contractor, said: “We’re here to show we want a level playing-field for fair employment for local workers.”
Alstom, the French engineering contractor building the power station, said most of the staff were British, and that 97.5% of the site’s 373 non-management workers were UK residents, with just under half living in Pembrokeshire.
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An Alstom representative said: “We only ever recruit people according to the specific skills needed, not according to nationality, as this would be discriminatory and illegal.”
But the protestors claimed the company’s figures were misleading, as they were based on postcodes, not nationalities.
