'Put people before profit' call from Buckie Just Transition meeting
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PEOPLE before profit – that was the resounding message from a public meeting in Buckie shining the spotlight on the Just Transition process from oil to renewables.
Portessie Public Hall last Thursday provided the venue for the event, which was organised by a group of six people comprising Sophie Legge, Sally Thain, Charlotte Hay, David Blair, Edwin Devlin and Neil Rothnie.
Joining members of the public at the meeting were Buckie councillors Sonya Warren and John Stuart – fellow ward councillor Neil McLennan was unable to attend due to a prior commitment – plus North East Conservative MSP Tess White and Moray Council Labour group leader Councillor Sandy Keith.
After those attending were welcomed, a short film entitled 'Offshore' was then screened examining the past, present and future of the offshore industry, to which the Buckie area has been a major contributor over the decades since North Sea oil came online. It also went on to examine the challenges facing oil industry workers making the transition to renewables, in particular wind power.
The meeting was then opened up to the floor, facilitated by Barry Jarvis.
Opening the meeting, Mr Rothnie said: "The film is about the transition from oil and gas to wind.
"If it is going to be just and fair it will depend on those people who're going to be affected accepting nothing but fairness – oil workers should expect the same degree of fairness as the rest of us.
"They should expect a future for themselves and for their children.
"Left to the oil industry the transition will be fair only to their shareholders. The cost of living crisis is bound up with the oil companies.
"We need to speak about what's happening on the ground and how families can be warm [in their own homes]."
The theme of oil companies putting profit ahead of people and the future of the planet, not to mention the safety of an often cowed workforce – the Piper Alpha disaster was mentioned on many occasions, including the fact that her sister rigs kept pumping oil after the initial explosion, literally fuelling an inferno that claimed 167 lives – figured large over the course of the evening.
Mr Rothnie went on to make an impassioned plea for Just Transition not to be governed by the profit-motivated oil and gas companies.
He warned: "The oil industry is going to destroy the planet, you can't leave transition in their hands.
"Left to their own devices they'll send us all screaming to hell.
"The only real people oil workers listen to is their mothers, wives and daughters. If they don't speak then they [oil workers] will do what the oil companies tell them."
Ms White, who talked about her 35 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, including a stint on the board of Shell Renewables, told the meeting that she believed oil companies had to be part of the solution.
She said: "Just Transition are just words that don't really mean much to many politicians – we need more than words, we need a stable and safe place people can work offshore.
"Events like tonight can help turn these words into action.
"Oil companies need to be part of the solution. Don't demonise oil and gas companies, they're partners and have the money to invest and can do the skills training which can be transferred to renewables."
Ms White went on to stress the importance of having a good education system which produced young people with the skills to flourish in the renewables sector.
A recurring theme during the meeting was the difficulty some oil and gas workers had in transferring their skills to offshore wind generation.
In terms of job opportunities Mr Devlin, who has himself made the transition from the oil industry to renewables, commented: "It's the way ahead, there's plenty of work out there."
Discussion focussed on skills passports, allowing workers to transfer seamlessly between the two industries without having to spend thousands of pounds having to re-do the training needed to gain the necessary certificates.
Contributing from the floor, Susan Chalmers said: "There are skills passports but there's no transferability of health and safety training, which is different for the two industries.
"It's the sticking block."
Ms Chalmers added that while a lot of focus had fallen on oil extraction discussions were needed on the use of hydrocarbons for plastics rather than fuel and what was going to be used as a substitute for a substance which is ubiquitous in modern society.
Councillor Warren, who owns Gateway Control Systems, said that getting people with the right skills was not just a problem for the renewables sector, it was a much wider issue.
"You've got to remember we've an ageing population and workforce, it's about how we increase the number of young people coming through with the right skills," she continued.
"It's not just about oil sector it's about giving everyone the appropriate skills.
"With an ageing workforce we have to help people to continue working in a way that allows them to share their knowledge and experience."
Infrastructure also formed a basis for much discussion, with views split as to Scotland's capacity to manufacture the necessary items for the expanding renewables industry, much of which, according to contributors to the meeting, is currently made in the Far East and shipped to Scotland. The impact this has on carbon footprint was also remarked upon.
Councillor Keith noted that an offshore manufacturing industry had previously been created at the likes of Nigg and Ardersier.
He added: "It's been done before, we can do it again."
Mr Devlin added that infrastructure was not just about manufacturing, it included the likes of adequate hotel accommodation in crew change ports – something he said was lacking in Buckie.
Mr Blair urged those at the meeting not to forget that profit remained king for oil companies and, for him, was the root of the cost of living problems faced by society.
He said: "In a recent report by the union Unite, the 350 biggest companies listed on the stock exchange – not just oil and gas companies – saw their profit margins increase by 89 per cent since before the pandemic.
"The cost of living crisis is actually a greed crisis."
At the end of the meeting, it was decided to take the matters forward, including inviting other MSPs and influencers to a future meeting.
BLOB More on this story at www.grampianonline.co.uk
