A NUMBER of construction workers at Suffolk's nuclear power stations downed tools in sympathy for the sacked workers at the Lindsey oil refinery.

A NUMBER of construction workers at Suffolk's nuclear power stations downed tools in sympathy for the sacked workers at the Lindsey oil refinery.

About 30 to 40 workers, mainly scaffolders and laggers, joined other wildcat strikers across the country yesterday as crucial talks aimed at resolving the bitter jobs dispute got under way.

Staff from both Sizewell sites, A and B, took part in the walk out.

An unnamed worker said: “We wanted to do something in protest to the way the Lindsey staff have been treated.

“We will be happy to go back to work when things at Lindsey are resolved. I do not know when that will be.”

Union bosses for the North Lincolnshire site, owned by Total, arrived for the talks in London yesterday to demand the reinstatement of 647 workers who were sacked after staging industrial action.

Workers at the Coryton oil refinery in Essex also took action for the first time, joining up to 4,000 strikers from power stations and oil and gas sites including Longannet in Scotland, Aberthaw in South Wales, Sellafield in Cumbria and Didcot in Oxfordshire.

A spokesperson for British Energy, which own Sizewell B, said: “We can confirm that some contractors have taken industrial action today.”

A spokeswoman for Magnox South, the operators of Sizewell A nuclear site, said: “There has been no significant impact on site operations and there are no safety implications.

“In the event of any action of this type Magnox South has procedures and processes in place to ensure there is no impact on either the safety or security of our sites.”

GMB general secretary Paul Kenny said the union was pressing ahead with a national ballot of thousands of workers in the industry in a long-running dispute over jobs and conditions, first announced earlier this month.