Unite the union has blasted both the UK and Scottish governments for their ministerial media appearances made over the weekend in relation to Petroineos’ decision to close the Grangemouth oil refinery next year.
Unite which represents the 500 oil refinery workers and thousands more in the wider supply chain has taken direct aim at Scottish and UK government ministers over ‘downplaying and deflecting’ the scale of the industrial and personal cost.
It is estimated that the economic contribution of the Grangemouth oil refinery stands at £403.6 million (€478 million) and with it 2,822 direct, indirect and induced jobs are reliant on its operations.
Unite has criticised comments by Gillian Martin MSP, energy minister, and UK energy minister Michael Shanks MP, over the weekend who said that they were both “confident” the workforce would find other work - and that they were aware of other companies having “already reached out to the workforce”.
Unite says both governments despite pre and post general election promises have so far failed to protect the workers by securing an extension in the lifespan of the oil refinery while not accelerating low carbon and renewables alternative projects to prevent any gap in employment.
Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said: “Scotland backed Labour at the ballot box but so far Labour has utterly failed to deliver for the Grangemouth workers when it needed them most. The SNP government has also shown itself to be irrelevant to the needs of working class communities. This is industrial vandalism on a mass scale.”
Anger at plans to shut Petroineos’s Grangemouth oil refinery
