A threatened 48-hour walkout at Grangemouth refinery and petrochemical site has been called off by the Unite union.
Members of the Unite union had planned a downing of tools on Sunday 20th October in a bitter row over union convener, Stephen Deans.
Unite’s Scottish secretary, Pat Rafferty, claimed the decision was made after representatives of the site’s operator, Ineos, “walked away” during through the night talks.
“We are outraged that Ineos representatives walked away from Acas talks, after 16 hours of negotiation and on the cusp of an agreement, for the ludicrous reason that Ineos chairman Jim Ratcliffe instructed his management representatives to demand an apology on his behalf”, Mr Rafferty said in comments reported by the BBC.
“Unite offered Ineos every proposal we could practically make, specifically an offer to enter into negotiations under the auspices of Acas to secure the future of Grangemouth with the immediate call-off of all industrial action and a guarantee of no strikes during these negotiations.
“However at 5am this morning Acas representatives informed us that we could not conclude an agreement to take to our members because a list of fresh demands were placed upon us and because ‘Jim wants an apology’ and that this was ‘a deal-breaker’.
Mr Rafferty said that during 30 years’ of employment relations he had never encountered anything as “utterly reprehensible”.
“It is absolutely incredible that the future of this site, its workforce – both permanent and contracted employees – and the national interest has been totally compromised by one man’s out of control ego.”
Tensions grew after union convener, Stephen Deans, was suspended by Ineos, then reinstated, in the row over the selection of a Labour candidate in Falkirk.
Mr Deans is chairman of Labour’s local constituency party and Unite in Scotland.
Plant starts return to full production
Mr Rafferty accused Ineos of driving the petrochemical plant towards a “damaging cold shutdown” which would affect fuel supplies across Scotland.
He said: “The safety and integrity of the site and the local population are now paramount and we have an obligation to ensure that Ineos does not permanently decimate the plant’s assets and the workforce with this cold shutdown.
“As a result, Unite will now call off all industrial action with immediate effect in order to protect this national asset from the scandalous behaviour of its owner.
“The plant should now start the return to full production and there is no excuse for this not to happen.”
Ineos is yet to issue a statement.
