Union chief hears offshore views

THE general secretary of the RMT union, Bob Crow, was at the Trades Council Club in Aberdeen yesterday to meet members of the union’s OILC/RMT branch and hear their views about working in the oil and gas industry.

Among the current concerns of UK offshore workers is that they are only being offered pay increases at about the rate of inflation while their counterparts in Norway are winning deals worth 12% and more.

OILC/RMT says it is continuing to grow rapidly on installations and rigs throughout the UK continental shelf, where members include engineering, maintenance and production operatives, drilling personnel, service hands, caterers, remotely operated vehicle operators and divers.