The ITF is supporting workers at the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland whose operator today announced it is to close the petrochemical facility at the site, with the probable loss of over 700 jobs.
Eleven hundred members of ITF-affiliated Unite the Union are under attack from the facility’s multinational corporation owner, Ineos. It is pushing the workforce to accept changes to their pay, working conditions and pensions.
Unite has called on the company to engage in a reasonable timetable of negotiations to achieve a new fair agreement. As well as announcing the closure of the petrochemical facility, Ineos has shut Grangemouth refinery and is threatening to keep it shut permanently if the union doesn't accept the sub-standard terms it has laid out.
ITF president and chair of the dockers’ section Paddy Crumlin said: “Today’s announcement is outrageous. This action by Ineos is a direct attack on the union, which has almost 100 per cent membership at Grangemouth. But it’s not just an attack on the union and the workforce, it’s an attack on communities and the Scottish economy too. “
Just as Unite cannot accept a sub-standard offer which lays out depleted terms and conditions for its members, the Scottish people and the government cannot accept a company which clearly has no social conscience being in charge of a facility which controls something like 12 per cent of the Scottish national economy. This site cannot be allowed to close and we join Unite it its call for a new owner to come forward or for the Scottish Government to take the operation under public control.”
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