Did the union get it badly wrong? Grangemouth Refinery

dshart

Southend1 wrote: »

A union doesn't think of it's own accord. A union is its members, therefore it does what its members want, democratically.

Nobody would dispute that negotiations should be reasonable. It seems in this case the employer was not prepared to negotiate at all.

You seem to forget that the initial industrial dispute was in relation to the issue regarding the union convener and nothing to do with the operation of the plant.

The company obviously used this as a good time to bring up the terms and conditions issue that had probably been on the cards for a while.

Have the company taken advantage of the situation? Probably
Did the union get it badly wrong? Yes

With regard to negotiations being reasonable, what did the union bring to the table apart from "we will not accept pay cut and changes to the pension scheme". Did they offer anything at all?

superbigal36

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-24671184


Union backed down

colino

Facts are that INEOS have created a massive business by picking up energy associated plants and businesses just as the oil giants wanted to get out and focus on their exploration, delivery and brands. Very much right place at the right time.
Grangemouth has received tens of millions of investment from INEOS and has been rewarded in its relatively short stewardship by two 70's style strike threats, the most recent due to their investigation of a full time Union Convenor on his use of paid company time and tools to act as labour organiser, fixing the candidate for the party in a local seat. Without completion of that internal report, union called a strike, and as the site (two components, one refinery and one petrochem) runs production processes, they cannot safely be turned off like a tap, so production was managed down. Bizzarely Unite then called off the strike, saying the, "close down" was a devious tool of the management to shut the plant permanently! INEOS then said, enough is enough, the petrochem plant is only running at 60% capacity due to lack of economic availability of feedstock, it is running at a £10M per month loss and if the union want to play games, then the £300M+ investment was not going to take place without realistic changes. Unite cried foul and ran to the media saying INEOS had shut the place and they were a bunch of lying, tax-dodging crooks (they even wrote to HMRC to have INEOS investigated). INEOS responded by sending to each employee an offer for the future. Overtime and bonuses to be changed, pay frozen for 3 years, pension scheme to be replaced, no strikes and in compensation £15,000. Unite rabble roused and managed to get around 50% of the workforce to say no and return the statements to them, not INEOS, and then Unite local went to Scottish Government to lobby for the plant to be taken into public ownership!
INEOS reverted to their previous plan of action, no investment for petrochem, therefore it would not reopen and with the threat of further strike action, refinery would close at a later date.
Seeing that their ambitions for future political office was about to lose 1350 jobs, with an average salary of £55,000 (more than double local economy) Unite begged for a meeting and their top UK man tried to swing his cringing about turn by claiming to have saved the jobs! Incidentally, the meeting, including introductions, tea and coffee and the management leaving the room to type up the agreement and have Unite sign it, because of their lies in the past, was done and dusted in under an hour.
Grangemouth have had to wait until this morning for INEOS to consider their position, £9M will come from the Scottish Government in grants and £125M will be supported by the loan guarantee scheme to ensure INEOS do actually invest and build the equipment needed for future fracked components imports.
If you are in Unite, find a new union, this bunch of incompetent, wannabe Labour MPs has nearly ripped out the heart of Scotlands economy.

Takeaway_Addict

superbigal36 wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-24671184


Union backed down

So....all the naysayers have been proven wrong, the union did make amassive mistake and had to backtrack

Well done Union on doing this but a bigger well done for the company for standing up for themselves.

Andy_L

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

So....all the naysayers have been proven wrong, the union did make amassive mistake and had to backtrack

Well done Union on doing this but a bigger well done for the company for standing up for themselves.

Except that article doesn't say if the agreement is better/worse/the same as the deal they previously rejected

colino

The thing that INEOS has added is that they will no longer pay for full time union reps. Pat Rafferty of Unite, claiming they are about to sit down and "consult" on the proposals is a flat lie. INEOS are firing up the plant and bringing back the staff and the 2000 laid off contractors.

Takeaway_Addict

Andy_L wrote: »

Except that article doesn't say if the agreement is better/worse/the same as the deal they previously rejected

What do you really think? I'd be amazed if it is better, more likely to be the same or worse...especially as the employer knows they have the power.

Southend1

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

What do you really think? I'd be amazed if it is better, more likely to be the same or worse...especially as the employer knows they have the power.

I think the original article referred to a pay cut whereas now it says 3 year pay freeze?

Takeaway_Addict

Southend1 wrote: »

I think the original article referred to a pay cut whereas now it says 3 year pay freeze?

Good point. Though I still can't see the employer giving way but they may have conceded a small point.

colino

It never was a cut in standard/basic pay or salaries and this remains unaltered. The development plan means they will no longer get the outrageous extra payments for overtime and standby on top of what is a mark time of halcyon BP days superstar salaries and pensions. If Grangemouth had went into liquidation last week there would have been no redundancy as the company was insolvent and their Chinese associates would probably have taken up the reins as new employers, looking for half the core staff at half the current payscales. The decent employees at Grangemouth were used by Unite as a test case to show their power to the UK government and it badly backfired. Unite "leadership" are a dangerous bunch of political office seeking labourites willing to throw 10,000 jobs under the bus for their own self-aggrandisement.