Unite condemns Ineos' inflammatory behaviour in Grangemouth dispute

25 April 2008

Unite say that Ineos, the company that owns the Grangemouth plant, has sent a letter to all workers telling them that the pension scheme will close on 1 August.

The move comes ahead of a two day strike by workers beginning this weekend intended to keep the pension scheme open.

Unite say that the letter is another demonstration of the company's cynical approach to the dispute and their workers. It says it makes clear the company's intention to press ahead with the closure of the pension scheme no matter what.

The union says that the company has employed incendiary tactics to seek to exacerbate rather than settle the dispute including misleading the media about how much Grangemouth workers earn and the company of misleading the Grangemouth workers themselves about the pension scheme's funding levels. Ineos even issued a defamation writ against the union during conciliation talks at ACAS.

Unite also say the company has talked up the effects of the strike and contributed to panic buying in Scotland.

Ineos' campaign of escalation culminated in a letter being sent to all Grangemouth workers yesterday saying that it would introduce the new defined contribution pension scheme immediately which will be applicable to all employees who join the company at Grangemouth from 1 August 2008.

Unite's National Officer for Ineos, Phil McNulty, said: "We believe that Inoes has acted cynically in it's dealings with us and we are suspicious about its intentions even to try and avert a strike.

"Our members have acted in good faith throughout this dispute. We have talked to Ineos for eight months and only when the company breached the terms of the consultation by introducing changes to the pension scheme without agreement did we ballot out members.

"We have said consistently that we will talk to the company at any time if they agree to halt plans to end the existing pension arrangements."