Offshore workers are the people on the front line in North Sea oil and gas. When workers on the front line are fed up, the rest of us should sit up and pay attention.
After all, North Sea oil and gas generate huge benefits for the UK and Scottish economies, provide a very good living for many people who rarely venture offshore, and sustain strong local and regional economies across the North and North East.
Of course, it’s not just terms and conditions which are under threat. Shell has just announced thousands of jobs to go across the globe, in the belief that there will be “a prolonged downturn” in the price of oil.
Thousands of jobs have already gone in the North East in recent months, with hundreds more announced only this week.
Some of the pressure on the North Sea industry was there before the price of oil fell by half in recent months. It is in any case an expensive place to produce oil, and many fields are only just profitable even when the price is high.
But cutting costs at the expense of the offshore workforce could prove to be a false economy, and that is what is at the heart of this dispute.
If new shift patterns make the North Sea an unattractive place to work, many of the more experienced workers may choose to take their skills elsewhere, and work from home, rather than spending three weeks at a time in the middle of the North Sea.
Some oil companies have chosen not to change shift patterns, because they believe that the benefits from keeping loyal and experienced men and women working offshore are greater than the savings to be made from fewer helicopter trips.
Offshore safety is also a critical consideration in the mature phase of this industry. Many workers feel that longer stints offshore will just mean more people being more tired towards the end of their tour of duty, with the risks that will entail.
Of course unions must seek to negotiate the best deal they can, and that has happened in this case. But employers must likewise listen to what the workforce have to say, and when their workers turn an offer down they really have to listen.
And so do we all.
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