Grangemouth oil refinery workers end strike
GRANGEMOUTH, Scotland (AFP) — Employees at the Grangemouth oil refinery went back to work on Tuesday after a strike that hit fuel supplies and pushed oil prices to record highs, as the government moved to prevent further walk-outs.
The 48-hour strike over pensions by about 1,200 employees at the site, located between Glasgow and Edinburgh, ended at 6:00 am, although it could take some time before normal operations are resumed.
Business Secretary John Hutton travelled to central Scotland to meet officials from owners Ineos and the Unite trade union, as well as representatives from the oil and gas industries.
"Now is the time for Unite and Ineos to get back to the negotiating table," Hutton said in a statement ahead of his visit, hours after Prime Minister Gordon Brown met Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond about the dispute.
"This is what I will be saying in my meetings today, and ACAS (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) stands ready. This is where the dispute must end," Hutton added.
But although Unite has not called any fresh strikes, its national officer Phil McNulty said if talks were to continue, Ineos needs to halt its plans to close its final salary pension scheme.
"The Grangemouth workers are having to strike to defend their existing pension scheme which, despite the fact it is well-funded and in profit, their hugely rich employer, Ineos, wants to close it," he said in a statement.
For their part, Ineos bosses said they had made "concession after concession" to keep talks going.
Unite's joint general secretary Tony Woodley was to meet Ineos owner Jim Ratcliffe in London later for "exploratory" talks, a union official told AFP.
The government is keen to avoid further strike action, just days after an estimated 400,000 public sector workers, including teachers and civil servants, walked out over below-inflation pay rises.
Offshore energy industry body Oil and Gas UK has estimated that the dispute could cost the economy more than 50 million pounds.
The walkout forced the closure of the refinery's neighbouring Forties pipeline, which supplies 40 percent of Britain's oil and gas.
The pipeline brings more than 700,000 barrels of crude oil ashore every day, supplying Britain and international markets. It cannot function without power and steam from Grangemouth.
Queues formed at many petrol stations across Scotland and into northern England amid concern that the pumps would run dry. There were reports of bulk-buying and profiteering.
Many petrol stations introduced rationing, as the Scottish government ordered fuel to be imported by sea tankers to boost supplies.
The dispute also helped push oil close to 120 dollars per barrel on Monday in a sector affected by a weaker US dollar, supply concernes and the OPEC cartel's reluctance to increase output further.
Meanwhile oil giants Royal Dutch Shell and BP made combined profits in excess of seven billion pounds in the first three months of this year on the back of rising prices, figures showed.
Speaking to the BBC in Grangemouth, Hutton said both sides needed to come to a "sensible agreement".
"If there is more industrial action, more people are going to suffer. That, I don't believe, is justified," he added.
But in London, hundreds of road haulage firms were expected to stage a protest against the high price of diesel on Tuesday. They says the price of diesel has risen by 30 percent in the last 12 months, sending many firms to the wall.
