Monday, 21 April 2008

Grangemouth Shutting Down in Anticipation of Strike

When I posted last week about Falkirk Council seeking to reduce their carbon footprint. I don't think any of us anticipating that the biggest poluuter in the district might end up shutting down operations for a month.

A strike that the Union Unite is calling for the 27th and 28th April has already cause Ineos who run Grangemouth the only oil refinery in Scotland to start a phased shut down of units in anticipation of a full shut down by Friday and may result in disruption for up to a month as a result of safety concerns. As the Grangemouth facilty provides fuel to all of Scotland, Northern Ireland and a great deal of Northern England motorists have started to panic buy fuel. They are both concerned that fuel will be in short supply or that the price may go up even higher as a result of this action.

The dispute is over the removal of the final salary pensions scheme which Ineos say they will maintain for current members of the pension scheme. Unite apparently have not been prepared to involve the conciliation service ACAS in their dispute, which considering the disruption and panic their announcement would have been expected to cause seems rather unfair to the populace at large.

No comments:

Post a Comment