Edinburgh
The instinct to blame antagonistic – and incompetent – trade union officials for the devastating news that Ineos is to close its petrochemical plant in Grangemouth is understandable. After all, the company has been warning for some time of losses at the complex of £10 million a month.
These figures demanded action to stem the financial haemorrhage. And, in those circumstances, Unite’s refusal to accept new conditions for its members was always a risky strategy.
It was clear last week – when Ineos temporarily closed down its entire Grangemouth complex, where it employs 1,600 people in the petrochemical plant and adjacent oil refinery – that the company was in no mood to compromise with the union, which had already threatened strike action over plans to freeze pay and cut pensions.
But while the union may have read the situation badly, it would be wrong to hold it entirely responsible for Ineos’s announcement this morning that it was to put the plant into liquidation.
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