Today sees the start of a 48 hour strike by workers at the Ineos oil refinery in Grangemouth, Central Scotland. Members of the Unite Union have staged the walk out in response to the companies discontinuation of their pension scheme, leaving workers with an uncertain future. Grangemouth produces %10 of the UK’s petrol and diesel. The strike will also cause the shutting of the Forties pipe-line, which supplies much of the UK’s fossil-fuels, including the fifth of Britain’s gas.
Unite members at a Grangemouth meeting
One thousand two hundred workers have striked, holding pickets outside the plant. Angry at their treatment by the third largest chemical company on the globe they have taken action which is reported to cost the company £50 million a day, and cause the treasury to lose £30 million a day in tax.
Ineos has ended its final salary pension scheme and from the 1st of August all new employees will be given a money purchase scheme. This means that instead of having a promise of a pension when they retire, workers have to put faith in the market to look after them when they retire. Not only will it leave new workers on thin ice, it will mean the current scheme will lack support as numbers diminish. The company has argued that this is necessary to stay competitive and make upgrades and invest in the plant. Unite has rubbished this claim saying that the change will save £1.5 million, whereas the upgrades require £720 million.
The Unite union has stated that it has left the door open to negotiations over further action. The current action has come after 8 months of talks between the union and the company. Members were balloted only after Ineos introduced the pension changes without agreement from the union.
Due to the dangerous nature of the work carried out at Grangemouth the strike has affected much more than just the 48 hour period, as it has taken a week to shut the plant down, and may take between and week and up to three weeks to start it back up again. Ineos has tried to keep petrol supplies going by shipping in fuel, however, Unite workers have refused to unload fuel unless it will only go to key workers and emergency services.
The strike and resultant shutting of the refinery has resulted in panic buying of fuel and prices to rise to £1.20 a litre. As the entire world watches, Ineos better take stock, because if they continue with these pension changes then there will be more strikes, and more loss of revenue. As one striker told the BBC “Suddenly we have ended up with the North Sea pipeline closed down. It is just mad - but we can't give up and we won't give up."
Ineos has ended its final salary pension scheme and from the 1st of August all new employees will be given a money purchase scheme. This means that instead of having a promise of a pension when they retire, workers have to put faith in the market to look after them when they retire. Not only will it leave new workers on thin ice, it will mean the current scheme will lack support as numbers diminish. The company has argued that this is necessary to stay competitive and make upgrades and invest in the plant. Unite has rubbished this claim saying that the change will save £1.5 million, whereas the upgrades require £720 million.
The Unite union has stated that it has left the door open to negotiations over further action. The current action has come after 8 months of talks between the union and the company. Members were balloted only after Ineos introduced the pension changes without agreement from the union.
Due to the dangerous nature of the work carried out at Grangemouth the strike has affected much more than just the 48 hour period, as it has taken a week to shut the plant down, and may take between and week and up to three weeks to start it back up again. Ineos has tried to keep petrol supplies going by shipping in fuel, however, Unite workers have refused to unload fuel unless it will only go to key workers and emergency services.
The strike and resultant shutting of the refinery has resulted in panic buying of fuel and prices to rise to £1.20 a litre. As the entire world watches, Ineos better take stock, because if they continue with these pension changes then there will be more strikes, and more loss of revenue. As one striker told the BBC “Suddenly we have ended up with the North Sea pipeline closed down. It is just mad - but we can't give up and we won't give up."
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