• We'd like to take this opportunity to wish you a Happy Holidays and a very Merry Christmas from all at Golf Monthly. Thank you for sharing your 2025 with us!

Grangemouth to close............

Can they get another line in The Proclaimers....Letter from America.
Grangemouth no more.

Scottish Car industry, mining, shipbuilding all destroyed by the union movement [and the lemmings who followed it]
 
My dad was on about this the other day as the company he works for which are a big gasket manufacture have a branch in Grangemouth and this will shut them down as around 70% of their work is from them.
 
Messrs Salmond and Sturgeon will be upset if Grangemouth does close. What is the point of being self-sufficent in North Sea oil if there is nowhere to refine it?
 
So Grangemouth stays open, and the unions really played a blinder. They have had to accept a 3 year no strike condition on top of accepting every single one of Ineos' demands that they told their members to vote against last week.

If I worked at Grangemouth, I'd be saving myself a few quid on my wages every week by cancelling my union subs.
 
Unscrupulous bosses around the country rubbing their hands together with glee - if UNITE can be cowed into submission and accepting the management plans 100% then all bets are off.
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
Unscrupulous bosses around the country rubbing their hands together with glee - if UNITE can be cowed into submission and accepting the management plans 100% then all bets are off.
Click to expand...

UNITE seem to be under the impression that they still have power and can bring employers to heel. Those days are LONG gone, they will never return and they only have themselves to blame.
 
Thank goodness for that.
There were much more than 1200 jobs at stake there.

Trouble is that the plant needs updating and where does that funding come from?
It seems that £134m is being invested by the UK/Scottish government. That is roughly £100k for each Ineos job saved and we are told that the average wage of a Grangemouth employee is £55k.

Some folk are making a lot of money.
 
Come on, does anyone really think that the full plant would have been allowed to be completely closed. No way , its the only direct pipeline feed from the northern offshore oil fields.
 
Last edited:
williamalex1 said:
Come on, does anyone really think that the full plant would have been allowed to be completely closed. No way , its the only direct pipeline feed from the northern offshore oil fields.
Click to expand...

I suppose in the context of next October one question is whether an independent Scottish government would have been more likely to prevent complete closure than the a post-independent Westminster government. Certainly the existing political arrangements appeared toothless in the face of management wishes over a workforce essentially powerless to protect their pensions, salaries and ultimately their jobs. I think that that was why labour organised itself into unions to fight bosses who did whatever they wanted with little or no concern or responsibility for the people and communities dependent upon the work.

Oh Brave New World!
 
Last edited:
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
I suppose in the context of next October one question is whether an independent Scottish government would have been more likely to prevent complete closure than the a post-independent Westminster government. Certainly the existing political arrangements appeared toothless in the face of management wishes over a workforce essentially powerless to protect their pensions, salaries and ultimately their jobs. I think that that was why labour organised itself into unions to fight bosses who did whatever they wanted with little or no concern or responsibility for the people and communities dependent upon the work.

Oh Brave New World!
Click to expand...

So allowing for the fact that the site was losing vast amounts of money and needed another very large cash injection to upgrade facilities it was unreasonable for the workforce to make these changes to secure their jobs?

Same old World really, no such thing as a free lunch! Animal Farm comes to mind.
 
Last edited:
SocketRocket said:
So allowing for the fact that the site was losing vast amounts of money and needed another very large cash injection to upgrade facilities it was unreasonable for the workforce to make these changes to secure their jobs?

Same old World really, no such thing as a free lunch! Animal Farm comes to mind.
Click to expand...

So you are completely accepting of the management line and that workersd should get real and stop trying to preserve their employment conditions - and if in doing so management decide to shut the place then that is OK - notwithstanding the disasterpous effect it would have on the local economy and problems that would result for the UK as a whole - given much North Sea oil flows through the plant to elsewhere in the UK.

And remember that the workers were not on strike when the owners decided to shut the place - the workers just did not accept what the management was saying and the management were unwilling to go to acas to negotiate.

So we are left with an owner who can hold the lives and livelihoods of thousands in the palm of his hands - to be crushed in his fist if he so wishes. An owner who can hold the local and wider national (Scotland and UK) economies to ransom. And that is a good thing? It may be how it currently is but are you telling me that it is a good thing and that is how it is going to be - really?
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
So you are completely accepting of the management line and that workersd should get real and stop trying to preserve their employment conditions - and if in doing so management decide to shut the place then that is OK - notwithstanding the disasterpous effect it would have on the local economy and problems that would result for the UK as a whole - given much North Sea oil flows through the plant to elsewhere in the UK.

And remember that the workers were not on strike when the owners decided to shut the place - the workers just did not accept what the management was saying and the management were unwilling to go to acas to negotiate.

So we are left with an owner who can hold the lives and livelihoods of thousands in the palm of his hands - to be crushed in his fist if he so wishes. An owner who can hold the local and wider national (Scotland and UK) economies to ransom. And that is a good thing? It may be how it currently is but are you telling me that it is a good thing and that is how it is going to be - really?
Click to expand...
The "Ragged Trousered Philanthropist" springs to mind.sad days.
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
So you are completely accepting of the management line and that workersd should get real and stop trying to preserve their employment conditions - and if in doing so management decide to shut the place then that is OK - notwithstanding the disasterpous effect it would have on the local economy and problems that would result for the UK as a whole - given much North Sea oil flows through the plant to elsewhere in the UK.

And remember that the workers were not on strike when the owners decided to shut the place - the workers just did not accept what the management was saying and the management were unwilling to go to acas to negotiate.

So we are left with an owner who can hold the lives and livelihoods of thousands in the palm of his hands - to be crushed in his fist if he so wishes. An owner who can hold the local and wider national (Scotland and UK) economies to ransom. And that is a good thing? It may be how it currently is but are you telling me that it is a good thing and that is how it is going to be - really?
Click to expand...

UNITE voted in favour of strike action to support the union official who was claiming he had been badly treated by the management. That may or may not be true but it seems to have been the vote in favour of strike action which tipped Ineos Management over the edge and led to the shutdown and everything that followed.

So although the workers may not have been on strike at the time of the shutdown, they had voted in favour of a strike.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-24716429
 
Begs the question,'what's Derek Hatton doing now'?

Funny how these militant Union leaders seem to have weird double standards.
Scargill's free for life London flat springs to mind as well.
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
So you are completely accepting of the management line and that workersd should get real and stop trying to preserve their employment conditions - and if in doing so management decide to shut the place then that is OK - notwithstanding the disasterpous effect it would have on the local economy and problems that would result for the UK as a whole - given much North Sea oil flows through the plant to elsewhere in the UK.

And remember that the workers were not on strike when the owners decided to shut the place - the workers just did not accept what the management was saying and the management were unwilling to go to acas to negotiate.

So we are left with an owner who can hold the lives and livelihoods of thousands in the palm of his hands - to be crushed in his fist if he so wishes. An owner who can hold the local and wider national (Scotland and UK) economies to ransom. And that is a good thing? It may be how it currently is but are you telling me that it is a good thing and that is how it is going to be - really?
Click to expand...

Their ball, their game.

Money doesn't grow on trees and if these people want someone else's money to give them a better life then they should be grateful for it. If they don't like it then they can always create a workers cooperative and start a business of their own but Unions are only good at telling others how to spend their money, a bit like all Socialists really.
 
SocketRocket said:
Their ball, their game.

Money doesn't grow on trees and if these people want someone else's money to give them a better life then they should be grateful for it. If they don't like it then they can always create a workers cooperative and start a business of their own but Unions are only good at telling others how to spend their money, a bit like all Socialists really.
Click to expand...

OK - so the market and free enterprise will come to the rescue of thousands who would have been affected by closure of Grangemouth. And oh yes - their ball game. And so it was with the mill and mine owners - yes - let's go back there - sounds like you'd be quite happy with that - as long as it wasn't you who was in the mill or down the mine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Slab
Dale Hill / Sedlescombe : East Sussex
Replies
14
Views
2K
Hacky
H
Crazyface
Can't be bothered shot
Replies
11
Views
2K
PhilTheFragger
PhilTheFragger
RangeRat
Clubs not uploading WHS data from competitions
2 3
Replies
41
Views
3K
Swango1980
S
Golfmmad
Tyre pressure sensors.
Replies
17
Views
1K
Deleted member 1147
D
Mudball
Legal option in case of supplier going bankrupt
2
Replies
32
Views
4K
cunnini
C
Top