Photograph by Paul McIlroy
Union leaders are set to offer concessions to management to try to save the Grangemouth petrochemical plant from closure.
Unite had taken a hard-line bargaining position over the proposed pay freeze and pensions downgrades for workers at the plant, but the refusal to make these concessions in previous meetings led to the news yesterday that Ineos was closing the plant with 800 workers losing their jobs.
Ineos director Tom Crotty told BBC Radio Scotland’s Morning Scotland programme that they would listen to the new proposals from the union leaders and they would take back any ideas to the Ineos shareholders.
Unite and the Scottish government are optimistic that the plant can be saved, but the ongoing discussions may be more to discuss redundancies if common ground can still not be found.
Grangemouth was closed after union workers threatened strike action over the treatment of one of their organisers, and Ineos responded with a cost-cutting “survival plan” which would have frozen employee wages and downgraded their pensions. Half the workers rejected these plans, and the plant was closed for weeks as negotiations continued. Ineos claimed that they were losing £10 million per month that the plant stayed closed.
