Piper Alpha: the real price of oil
Twenty years on, we remember them.
“On the night of 6 July 1988 Bob was an electrician on Piper. When the first explosion rocked the platform he was in his bunk reading a book. He mustered in the galley where it quickly became became evident that no plan of evacuation or leadership was on offer…
“He soon found himself in the company of others taking refuge from the inferno in a workshop. Eventually getting to the edge of the platform he lowered himself by rope part way to the sea and jumped the rest. As debris and burning oil rained down around him the current took him slowly away from the platform… watching the flame and explosion devour Piper, the strong thought came to him more than once that it was just a nightmare and that he would soon awake. He was one of 62 men to escape. One hundred and sixty five of his colleagues on the platform died along with two rescuers.
“Not one day of his life passed from that night on when he did not think of those that he had left behind. He campaigned relentlessly to ensure the world knew that the disaster had been waiting to happen, foretold by the men and women who worked offshore. The unholy alliance of a government greedy for revenue and even greedier oil companies had long eclipsed the foreboding felt by many for worker safety offshore…”
Read the rest here. OILC (the Offshore Industry Liason Committee) emerged as a direct result of this, initially as a rank-and-file committee within the AEU, and then as an independent union shamefully excluded from the TUC by the AEU and its successors. They recently merged with the RMT. As they explain here, they’ve been fighting UK governments and the UK Offshore Operators Association (UKOOA) for basic safety legislation and the application of measures like the European Working Time Directive, ever since.
