fecking unions. Who's side are they on? Why don't the work with the management instead of holding them to ransom?
Lessons learned, don't play poker with a billionaire.
Grangemouth factory shuts down as Ineos turns the screw | The Times
Lessons learned, don't play poker with a billionaire.
Grangemouth factory shuts down as Ineos turns the screw | The Times
Grangemouth factory shuts down as Ineos turns the screw
The loss-making petrochemicals plant at Grangemouth in Scotland is to close permanently and the refinery will not reopen unless workers accept lower pay and an end to their final salary pension scheme.
Both the factory and the refinery have been temporarily out of operation while the industrial dispute continues, and the site’s owners stressed today that the strategically important oil refinery too will never reopen until the new terms and conditions have been accepted.
PetroIneos, which owns the site, has said that it cannot continue supporting a loss of around £10 million a month and that it has to restructure the business.
Caroline Flint, the Shadow Energy Secretary, will ask an urgent question in the House of Commons this afternoon about the Government’s contingency plans for coping with the news.
Half of the 1,370 employees who work at the Grangemouth site had voted to reject new terms and conditions, including a no-strike deal, a three year pay freeze and loss of bonuses, and cuts to staff pension entitlements.
Shareholders met yesterday to discuss the future of the site. This morning at 10am workers were called to a meeting with company bosses, and told that the petrochemicals side, which manufactures plastics and other oil-related products, was to shut.
“Petrochemicals is shut. The refinery’s staying down unless we agree to the new terms and conditions. That’s it,” said one petrochemicals worker, as emotions ran high at the plant.
“I walked out after 10 minutes, I couldn’t keep listening. It was Calum McLean [chairman of PetroIneos], he was smiling as he told us we was out of a job.”
The employee, who had worked at Grangemouth for 11 years, was too emotional to continue his interview with Sky News.
Around 800 workers are employed at the petrochemical site, with more employed as sub-contractors.
Fears that closure was imminent rose after Ineos laid off a number of agency workers. Today’s partial closure will come as some relief to workers and their families, as well as to politicians in Scotland.
Mr McLean later issued a statement, placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Unite union, which he said had advised workers to reject the company’s deal.
“This is a hugely sad day for Grangemouth. We have tried our hardest to convince employees of the need for change. There was only ever going to be one outcome [when the company’s terms were rejected].
“We have had no option but to retain the services of a liquidator. The liquidation process will begin within one week.”
No final decision had yet been taken on the refinery, but Mr McLean stressed that it would only have a future if workers accepted the new terms and conditions.
Grangemouth is strategically important for the UK, supplying 85 per cent of the fuel oil for northern Britain, and is one of Scotland’s biggest employers.
PetroIneos closed the refinery and petrochemicals complex last week, despite the Unite union calling off last weekend’s planned two-day strike in protest at the company’s treatment of Stephen Deans, a Unite convener who is being investigated for what an insider said was “improper use of company e-mails” in connection with the row over the Falkirk Labour constituency association.
The Scottish Government has revealed that it has been in touch with potential overseas buyers to safeguard the plant.
The Holyrood administration also said it was willing to give its Swiss-based owner a £9 million grant, requested as part of a wide-ranging “survival plan”. The UK Treasury also agreed to supply Ineos with a £125 million infrastructure loan guarantee, one of the company’s demands for investing more than £300 million in the plant.
There were fears that if the refinery had closed, petrol prices would have surged upwards again to fresh highs after a fall in prices in recent months.
An AA spokesman said: “The primary concern is the long-term impact on pump prices if Grangemouth closes permanently. Refinery shutdowns on both sides of the Atlantic in early 2012 created record pump prices in the UK.
“Supply and demand has little to do with how the market reacts, it’s sentiment that drives prices up. They went up 10p a litre in early 2012.”
The 210,000 barrels a day from Grangemouth supplies most of the fuel for Scotland and powers BP’s Kinneil oil terminal, which processes North Sea crude coming ashore via the Forties Pipeline System. Problems at Kinneil have in the past pushed global oil prices higher.
Industry insiders dismissed the idea that another company would have been interested in acquiring Grangemouth. One said: “Ineos has specialised in taking over plants that big companies couldn’t make pay and turning them into profitable businesses. If Ineos doesn’t see a future in Grangemouth without the kind of cost-cutting it has outlined, it is hard to see anyone else taking it on.”
The loss-making petrochemicals plant at Grangemouth in Scotland is to close permanently and the refinery will not reopen unless workers accept lower pay and an end to their final salary pension scheme.
Both the factory and the refinery have been temporarily out of operation while the industrial dispute continues, and the site’s owners stressed today that the strategically important oil refinery too will never reopen until the new terms and conditions have been accepted.
PetroIneos, which owns the site, has said that it cannot continue supporting a loss of around £10 million a month and that it has to restructure the business.
Caroline Flint, the Shadow Energy Secretary, will ask an urgent question in the House of Commons this afternoon about the Government’s contingency plans for coping with the news.
Half of the 1,370 employees who work at the Grangemouth site had voted to reject new terms and conditions, including a no-strike deal, a three year pay freeze and loss of bonuses, and cuts to staff pension entitlements.
Shareholders met yesterday to discuss the future of the site. This morning at 10am workers were called to a meeting with company bosses, and told that the petrochemicals side, which manufactures plastics and other oil-related products, was to shut.
“Petrochemicals is shut. The refinery’s staying down unless we agree to the new terms and conditions. That’s it,” said one petrochemicals worker, as emotions ran high at the plant.
“I walked out after 10 minutes, I couldn’t keep listening. It was Calum McLean [chairman of PetroIneos], he was smiling as he told us we was out of a job.”
The employee, who had worked at Grangemouth for 11 years, was too emotional to continue his interview with Sky News.
Around 800 workers are employed at the petrochemical site, with more employed as sub-contractors.
Fears that closure was imminent rose after Ineos laid off a number of agency workers. Today’s partial closure will come as some relief to workers and their families, as well as to politicians in Scotland.
Mr McLean later issued a statement, placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Unite union, which he said had advised workers to reject the company’s deal.
“This is a hugely sad day for Grangemouth. We have tried our hardest to convince employees of the need for change. There was only ever going to be one outcome [when the company’s terms were rejected].
“We have had no option but to retain the services of a liquidator. The liquidation process will begin within one week.”
No final decision had yet been taken on the refinery, but Mr McLean stressed that it would only have a future if workers accepted the new terms and conditions.
Grangemouth is strategically important for the UK, supplying 85 per cent of the fuel oil for northern Britain, and is one of Scotland’s biggest employers.
PetroIneos closed the refinery and petrochemicals complex last week, despite the Unite union calling off last weekend’s planned two-day strike in protest at the company’s treatment of Stephen Deans, a Unite convener who is being investigated for what an insider said was “improper use of company e-mails” in connection with the row over the Falkirk Labour constituency association.
The Scottish Government has revealed that it has been in touch with potential overseas buyers to safeguard the plant.
The Holyrood administration also said it was willing to give its Swiss-based owner a £9 million grant, requested as part of a wide-ranging “survival plan”. The UK Treasury also agreed to supply Ineos with a £125 million infrastructure loan guarantee, one of the company’s demands for investing more than £300 million in the plant.
There were fears that if the refinery had closed, petrol prices would have surged upwards again to fresh highs after a fall in prices in recent months.
An AA spokesman said: “The primary concern is the long-term impact on pump prices if Grangemouth closes permanently. Refinery shutdowns on both sides of the Atlantic in early 2012 created record pump prices in the UK.
“Supply and demand has little to do with how the market reacts, it’s sentiment that drives prices up. They went up 10p a litre in early 2012.”
The 210,000 barrels a day from Grangemouth supplies most of the fuel for Scotland and powers BP’s Kinneil oil terminal, which processes North Sea crude coming ashore via the Forties Pipeline System. Problems at Kinneil have in the past pushed global oil prices higher.
Industry insiders dismissed the idea that another company would have been interested in acquiring Grangemouth. One said: “Ineos has specialised in taking over plants that big companies couldn’t make pay and turning them into profitable businesses. If Ineos doesn’t see a future in Grangemouth without the kind of cost-cutting it has outlined, it is hard to see anyone else taking it on.”
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