UpdateINEOS workers plan Grangemouth strike

18 April 2008 17:48  [Source: ICIS news]

(Adds quotes from Tom Crotty in paragraphs 8-9)

 

LONDON (ICIS news)--A planned strike at INEOS’s Grangemouth plant in Scotland on 27-28 April could stop production at the site for up to a month and impact fuel supplies, the Unite union said on Friday.

 

It added that because the UK’s entire oil and petrol supply depends on the Grangemouth site staying at full production, the strike would mean the plant would have to shut down.

 

The union is protesting against INEOS’s plans to alter its pension scheme, Unite said.

 

“The existing pension arrangement is excellent and the fact that the business is highly successful means that the INEOS pension scheme should be one of the best and the most secure in the country,” said Unite joint national officer for petrochemicals Phil McNulty.

 

But INEOS said the strike would cause safety fears at the site as Unite members had said they would not provide safety cover during the action.

 

“Unite also told the company that it had just 10 days to remove all oil and gas from the plant and make the site safe - a physical impossibility,” said Grangemouth  and INEOS Olefins CEO Tom Crotty.

 

INEOS maintains that the pension scheme it has offered is very generous and said it would like to continue open discussions with the union.

 

“The vote for strike action is hugely disappointing. We need to spend £750m modernizing Grangemouth and a strike will make it virtually impossible for us to achieve this,” said Crotty.

 

“We believe the proposed strike action could cost at least 650 direct jobs and indirectly many more. The union needs to understand that we live in the real world. If we are not competitive and we can’t get the investment, we will lose the jobs,” he added.

 

European brokers said the strike would not impact gasoline prices, which have recently hit record highs.

 

The Grangemouth site produces benzene, butadiene, ethanol, ethylene, propylene, polyethylene, polypropylene, polybutadiene rubber, styrene-butadiene rubber and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene.

 

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By: Lucy Craymer
+44 20 8652 3214

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