UNITE oil and gas workers have launched a Keep The North Sea Working campaign to demand politicians standing for Holyrood to outline how they will protect their jobs.

The campaign comes amid a job crisis across the sector, with growing job losses in the North Sea exacerbated by the closures of Grangemouth and Mossmorran, and predictions that up to 1,000 jobs could be lost every month until 2030 without government intervention.

Workers are calling on Scottish politicians to back Unite’s demand for no compulsory redundancies in the sector and to preserve jobs, pay and conditions in the absence of any viable plan to transition jobs from fossil fuels to new green industries.

Launching the challenge, which builds on the union’s long-standing “No ban without a plan” North Sea campaign, general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Energy policies in Westminster and Holyrood are putting jobs and energy security at risk. 

“Unite’s message to all politicians is clear: With energy and fuel bills set to rocket due to the Iran war, you need to stop the offshoring of our carbon responsibilities, keep the North Sea working and fund a concrete plan for jobs. 

“We simply cannot let go of one rope before we have hold of another.”

 Bob MacGregor, Unite lead industrial officer for the sector in Scotland, said: “Empty promises of a just transition ring hollow because there are no credible alternatives at scale to replace the tens of thousands of oil and gas jobs being lost. 

“Scotland simply can’t sustain this level of industrial devastation.

“Scottish politicians can’t continue to bury their heads in the sand because it is an act of national self-sabotage, we are now challenging them to support union jobs and the communities they sustain.”