Thursday 24 April 2008

Refinery Talks Break Down

The talks at Acas between the Unite union representing 1200 workers at the Grangemouth petrochemical plant and Ineos the owners broke down last night.

The dispute was over the removal the final pension scheme from new employees and to seek contribution from those already in the scheme. Now seeing the number of other employees across the country who have faced these sort of chances hardly the most radical pension changes in these hardening financial times.

However, Unite came away from the talks saying that Ineos had been unwilling to move over their proposals. Ineos on the other hand had said they were prepared to put all the changes on hold for a 3 month discussion period so that strike action and shutting down the plant can be avoided on Sunday and Monday. Sadly we cannot be sure which story is closest to the truth at present as to why after 2 days the talks broke down.

The Automobile Association and the UK Petroleum Industry Association have both said their is no need for Scottish motorists to panic buy full tanks of fuel as sources will be found to keep the pumps operating at normal levels of demand. For the period of the strike this was already available at Grangemouth and while the plant comes back on stream alternative sources to supplement local delivery. The temporary stock outs that have occurred across Scotland have come as a result of the panic paying.

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