LONDON, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- Refinery workers in Britain voted to end a strike Thursday, after management at a Lindsey, England, work site agreed to hire more British workers.
An additional 102 jobs would be given to British workers at the refinery construction project, but the union vowed to take their case to other refineries hiring foreign workers, the Guardian reported Thursday.
Workers struck after IREN, an Italian company, imported most of the labor for a $285 million construction project from Italy and Portugal.
To end the strike, Minister of State for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs Pat MacFadden also struck a deal with Engineering Construction Industry Association to ensure foreign contractors would "always explore and consider the local skills availability," for future construction projects.
Phil Whitehurst, who helped negotiate the deal for Britain's General Union GMB, said the vote to return to work Monday was unanimous.
"But, the fight does not stop here," he said. "The fight continues ... anywhere else where an injustice is being done."
As part of the fallout, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Britain would work with the European commission to maintain a union's right to strike against foreign labor undermining local wages.
