National Shop Stewards Network: Police interfere with sparks protest at Ratcliffe

Around 40 sparks were protesting outside Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station on Wednesday 1st February to fight the imposition of the BESNA contract.

They have been out each week for the past couple of months, and usually when they hold a protest are able to stop cars going into the site and cause a lot of disruption on the roads tailing back to the M1. However, due to this success and the fact that this weeks protest was more widely publicised in order to break the media blackout on the dispute, two vans of police were present and stopped the sparks from leafleting the cars.

Nonetheless, there was still a determined mood that they will not be stopped that easily and will continue with the weekly protests until they win. There will be discussion on tactics to take the struggle forward amongst the sparks on site, with some planning to attend the rank and file meeting this Saturday.