Grangemouth petrochemical plant to close

[j2 lot]

Looks like there is a stay of execution for now...but that's all I'd call it.

Don't know a lot about it but the level of investment being talked about must surely give a life span that is in decades rather than years??

[Andy G]

suspect the bike tracks of Europe will breathe a sigh of relief that their best customer will retain his employment

[campbell]

Looks like there is a stay of execution for now...but that's all I'd call it.

Don't know a lot about it but the level of investment being talked about must surely give a life span that is in decades rather than years??

They haven't put the money in yet...

[tut]

Union Leader is a pretty good job as no matter what happens to your members, your job and salary and pension are safe.

What do they actually do though when they are not organising strikes? 36 of them earn over £100K/year, plus a lot more in benefits.

Moral of the story of course is if you can't beat them then join them.

tut

[neil]

From what I've gleaned Ineos have managed to secure some of the investment out of the government, plus crippled the union in the process. Well played on their part....
Long term, industry in the UK and Europe is screwed due to the carbon taxes which is a crazy situation to be in. We'll end up importing everything as it'll be too expensive to produce here. Obviously that nasty CO2 gas can't cross borders

[greido]

I'm not close to this at all but do wonder what proportion of union members salary goes towards their union fees and do they feel they are getting value for money?....... I could go on about my opinions but from the outside looking in, I'm glad they do not represent me.

[Scuffers]

From what I've gleaned Ineos have managed to secure some of the investment out of the government, plus crippled the union in the process. Well played on their part....
Long term, industry in the UK and Europe is screwed due to the carbon taxes which is a crazy situation to be in. We'll end up importing everything as it'll be too expensive to produce here. Obviously that nasty CO2 gas can't cross borders

Nope.

what they have managed to get from UK gov is gettign them to lean on BP (easing the terms of its supply contract), as well as re-stating the government's pledge to offer loan guarantee's (as in not the loans themselves just guarantees for them).

they also have got Unite out of Grangemouth for at least 3 years (and no permanent Unite presence on site).

Sad part of all this is that for the same of the 800 (highly paid) jobs the media keep going on about, there are another 2,000+ contractors on that site that got well and truly shafted in all of this, thanks to Unite's stupidity in calling for a strike, and the subsequent shutdown, it's yet to be seen just how much these guys and the companies with contracts there loose because of this spat.

Basically, Unite's stupidity could have seen the whole area totally devastated, that plant shuts and there is no other industry that's not majority reliant on the Grangemouth site, remember Redcar? (and that was nothing like the same impact this would have).

Lest anybody forget's, these 800 are not exactly under-paid, reported average wages were in the low £50K's, which I would suggest for the area is way above anything else.

At the end of the day, this total farce was kicked off by Unites political meddling with the Labour party, plain and simple, the workforce were just being used as pawns, and have now learned a hard lesson.

As a side note, Salmond much have sh*t himself, if that plant closed, independence would have been dead in the water!

[j2 lot]

if that plant closed, independence would have been dead in the water!

Probably still is.

[mckeann]

I'm glad your so well informed scuffers. I'd hate you to be so opinionated with only what you've read in the papers

[Scuffers]

I'm glad your so well informed scuffers. I'd hate you to be so opinionated with only what you've read in the papers

OK, tell me where I am wrong then?

(and FYI I have mates that work up there)

[Scotty C]

I have mates

[mckeann]

I'm glad your so well informed scuffers. I'd hate you to be so opinionated with only what you've read in the papers

OK, tell me where I am wrong then?

(and FYI I have mates that work up there)

Did you see a copy of the 'contract' that they asked us to sign ?????

Do you know what agreements are currently in place between the union and ineos???

If you did, you'll know that what they asked us to sign was a load of sh*t. Unlike whats in the papers, it was hardly anything to do with pay and pension, and it was the other conditions that were of concern

[sja]

Neil has hit the nail on the head; it was all the other conditions that he wanted, sorry 'got', that F**k's all the staff forever more. All the union stuff was a smoke screen to get what he wanted. He's a shrewd cookie.

[Scuffers]

Welcome to commercial reality.

Plants are shutting all over Eu, and moving to the US, to keep here then things need change

The sensible man negotiates, the stupid one goes on strike, over a union reps political activities, giving the management the upper hand in the whole situation.

How do you think the contact workers on that site feel about it

Longer term, unless we have access to cheap gas here, this will only be a stop gap, but then things like the SNP saying no to fracking is not exactly going to help is it?

Welcome to the global economy.

[David]

Hearing a lot about these 'other conditions' but no one seems to be willing to tell us what they are. The contract has been in the hand of the press for some time now, so if they're that bad, why haven't they published them? The reason, I suspect, is that they are well within the norm for a workforce today and would be a bit of a non story.

Glad to see the whole episode sorted and hope the group of workers who brought this about have been brought back to the reality that most of us have been living with over the last few years.