Unite, the largest union in Scotland, is calling for immediate action to preserve jobs and skills and support the Scottish economy, following the publication of Project Willow.
Governments action needed now
Unite believes that the UK and Scottish governments must now step in to secure a workers’ transition at Grangemouth, with immediate action being taken to develop projects that can protect jobs at the oil refinery.
This would be a significant and welcome development as despite £1.5 million of UK taxpayer money being used to fund Project Willow to examine the future use of the Grangemouth refinery, Petroineos (which is co-owned by Ineos and the Chinese government) has controlled its terms and conditions.
Unite is already working with the Scottish government to secure an urgent independent report of the existing assets at the Grangemouth refinery. Unite expects that to align with its own expert advice that shows an accelerated transition to producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is possible.
Wrong questions asked
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: 'Project Willow was created by Petroineos as a fig leaf to justify its act of industrial vandalism of shutting the refinery and axing jobs. It asked the wrong questions and then failed to provide the answers that Grangemouth refinery workers need.
'The UK and Scottish governments need to act rapidly to protect skilled well paid employment. There are projects like SAF production which can be swiftly enacted to protect jobs and those opportunities must not be lost. This would pave the way for the UK to become a world leader in green aviation.'
Undue delay
In total there are nine possible projects identified by Project Willow for the site. However, under PetroIneos proposals most of these would not start for several years after the site had closed and jobs had been lost. In contrast, Unite believes that many of these projects could be fast tracked and implemented now. There could be a rapid move to convert the existing refinery to SAF production. This includes starting with co-processing (mixing SAF and petroleum). Unite proposals would safeguard current jobs and would be more environmentally friendly than Petroineos’ plan to simply import petroleum from countries such as China and India.
Decisive action needed
Unite Scottish secretary Derek Thomson said: 'The Scottish and UK governments must act decisively to take control of a workers’ transition at Grangemouth. That includes an immediate independent review of the assets at the refinery.
'The options for the future of the Grangemouth refinery need to be fast-tracked to preserve jobs and skills on the site. The workers need to see that the political will exists for a decent future for Grangemouth.'
Background
Unite has produced a detailed plan which demonstrates how Grangemouth can relatively easily be initially converted into a Sustainable Aviation Fuel facility, before further developing into a full bio-fuels outlet. The creation of a SAF facility is entirely in line with government policies. Unite’s research has found that converting an existing refinery is 30 – 70 per cent cheaper than building a new facility.
It is understood in the best case scenario under Project Willow’s plans only 200 jobs at the refinery site would be created by 2028. This would be a mixture of plastics recycling, the production of biomethane from sewage and animal waste and from a later date (2030) turning paper waste into feedstocks for low carbon chemicals. Only by 2032 (seven years after the refinery closes) that work levels are schedules to return to 400, the same as the number of jobs that are set to be lost. This would be through SAF production and would still cost £800 million of government investment.
Source: Unite
