GMB reaches agreement on fracking

The GMB general union has announced that it has reached agreement on a joint charter on shale gas with the UK oil and offshore organisation UKOOG. This focuses on safety, skills and supply chain development and includes the establishment of an industry safety forum.

Shale gas development and fracking is hugely controversial due to environmental, as well as health and safety concerns. Other unions, including the general Unite union and the public and commercial services PCS union, are opposed to fracking.

Meanwhile, the TUC’s approach is based on a decision at its 2012 annual Congress. This effectively calls for a moratorium on the fracking method of gas extraction “unless proven harmless for people and the environment”.

But GMB national secretary Gary Smith said: “The truth is we are going to be using gas including shale gas for a long time to come. Given these facts we need to honestly consider the moral and environmental issues about transporting gas, including shale gas, across oceans and continents and being increasingly dependent on gas from countries with regulatory and environmental standards lower than ours.” 

Delegates at the union’s annual Congress debated onshore fracking for shale gas and voted for a statement from its lay governing body, the central executive council. This recognises that “gas will continue to play a crucial role in the development of a low carbon economy and be part of a balanced energy mix”.

www.ukoog.org.uk/about-ukoog/press-releases/149-ukoog-and-gmb-reach-landmark-agreement-on-shale-gas

www.hazards.org/oil/fracking.htm

www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/doubts-over-fracking-jobs-claims-new-report-says-24000-jobs-clean-energy

www.pcs.org.uk/download.cfm?docid=467935D9-B8EC-4F29-A09608A5C57B7485