MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ineos is considering closing its Grangemouth facility in what has been described by union representatives as a "shocking" attempt to browbeat the workforce ahead of pension talks, said Plasticsnews.
Company chairman Jim Ratcliffe described the plant as "expensive", citing "old-fashioned pensions" as a being a prime cause for concern. He was quoted as saying: "To have a future, it needs cheap feedstocks and a sensible cost structure. If we can’t resolve those issues it would need to shut down."
Pat Rafferty, Scottish secretary of Unite, said: "We are disappointed in this blatant attempt by Jim Ratcliffe to position the workforce ahead of scheduled talks on pensions and future site investments."
Unite represents around 1,200 workers at the Grangemouth facility. The union threated strike action earlier this year over the suspension of a member of staff accused of having been involved in Falkirk candidate-selection political scandal.
Inoes purchased the site from BP’s Innovene subsidiary in 2005 for GBP5.7bn.
As MRC wrote before, Solvay and Ineos Group Holdings, which plan to merge their European vinyl chloride assets in a EUR4.3 billion (USD5.7 billion) deal, may sell a German site to help win regulatory approval. Ineos’s site in Schkopau, with the capacity to make about 150,000 tons of PVC a year, may fetch about EUR60 million.
INEOS Group Limited is a privately owned multinational chemicals company consisting of 15 standalone business units, headquartered in Rolle, Switzerland and with its registered office in Lyndhurst, United Kingdom. It is the fourth largest chemicals company in the world measured by revenues (after BASF, Dow Chemical and LyondellBasell) and the largest privately owned company in the United Kingdom.
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