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Vol. 77/No. 41      November 18, 2013

 
Scotland refinery imposes cuts
after lockout, threats to close
 
BY ANNE HOWIE  
LONDON — In response to a 48-hour strike scheduled to start Oct. 20 at the Grangemouth oil refinery and petrochemical plant in Scotland, Ineos Group Limited shut down the complex and said it would not reopen until workers accepted the company’s concessionary demands. The decision to strike came as contract talks broke down and in response to company treatment of a Unite union convener.

Unite officials then called off the planned walkout before it began. Ineos used its threat to stay closed to press cuts, including a three-year wage freeze, pension benefits reductions, reduced shift allowances and ending the presence of a full-time union convener on site. The company offer included a one-time contract-signing bribe of £15,000 ($24,000) for each worker.

“This is cynical blackmail from a company that is putting a gun to the heads of its loyal workforce to slash pay, pensions and jobs,” Pat Rafferty, Unite’s Scotland secretary, told Reuters Oct. 17.

Ineos insisted workers vote on its plan. About half the directly employed workforce rejected the contract in results announced Oct. 21. The proportion voting against the offer among the union members — who comprise the majority — was 65 percent.

Two days after the announcement of the vote, the company said the petrochemical plant would remain closed for good, eliminating 800 jobs. On Oct. 25, after negotiations involving Scottish and U.K. government ministers, Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey announced the union would accept the company’s plan “in the wake of the closure decision,” according to the Scotland Herald.

Ineos then announced that the plant would reopen, ending the 12-day shutdown.

While Ineos operates the complex, the refinery is part-owned by PetroChina. Some 1,370 workers are directly employed there, along with about 2,000 contract workers. The refinery is Scotland’s main fuel supplier, processing 200,000 barrels of crude oil every day. Crude oil is also imported to the site from around the world via its deep-sea terminal on the west coast of Scotland. The petrochemical plant manufactures 2 million tons of products per year.  
 
 
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