Unemployed construction workers have staged a demonstration at a power station to demand fair access to jobs as the row over the use of foreign labour continued.
Around 80 protesters gathered at Grain Power Station in Kent, waving placards and banners stating "Alstom stop excluding British workers", "Fairness for British workers" and "Fight for jobs at Grain".
The demonstration comes almost two weeks since an initial protest outside the site and coincides with a march at the Staythorpe Power Station, near Newark in Nottinghamshire, over claims that 1,000 jobs will go to overseas rather than to UK workers.
Alstom has been contracted by power company E.On to build a new power station at Grain.
However, demonstrators claimed skilled workers were being denied the chance to apply for work.
They claimed Alstom's Polish sub-contractors, Remak and ZRE, are refusing to consider applications from UK labourers for the estimated 450 jobs available over the course of the project.
Speaking outside the gates, GMB trade union official Brian Skipper said: "We're here again today to demonstrate about the lack of UK people employed at this site.
"We know that there is now currently approximately 600 application forms with Alstom waiting to be vetted and passed on to the sub-contractors, but, to date, we have seen no evidence of any of these people being employed.
"The two Polish sub-contractors are continuing to bring their own people in from Poland, where I understand they are advertising for workers."
He added: "Feelings are still pretty high. A lot of these people are unemployed and would like work. I think feelings are starting to turn to frustration now rather than the good-hearted spirits they had at the last meeting."
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