For anyone who has ever travelled up the M9 at night past Grangemouth’s massive plant, as I have countless times, the apocalyptic vision can inspire both awe and an eerie feeling of unease.
Monolithic steel chimneys spread over a vast plain light up the night sky for miles, spurting huge flames into the foggy atmosphere while down below thousands of workers beaver away, making sure our tankers are filled and the place doesn’t blow sky high.
The noise a deep, shaking rumble can be heard and felt as far away as Stirling and the light thrown can wash out the stars making you wonder if you’ve slept in. The true scale of this place makes you quickly put the pedal to the metal in an effort to whizz past in case it does suddenly go bang.
Well explode it has not with a petroleum-fuelled detonation but one that was sparked by those destructive human traits, greed, envy, revenge, distrust and paranoia.
This volatile mix has now ignited, incinerating brain cells at both union Unite and owners Ineos. The resultant shockwave of this explosion, or rather implosion, unless checked and contained, looks set to wreak havoc across not only the region, but the whole nation.
It beggars belief that such a small dispute over a worker’s political affiliation and whether or not he’s used his work time to spread his lefty views has been allowed to escalate to the point where the doomsday scenario of plant closure is close to becoming a reality. What the hell were Unite thinking off?
They should have been careful what they wished for as this has backfired badly for them and threatened the livelihoods of those they purport to represent. Threatening strike action when the business was haemorrhaging cash was crazy.
Whether the figure is £10 million a month or £1 million they should have shut the hell up a loss is a loss and their naive and foolish action could now destroy the lives of the 3,000 workers and the tens of thousands reliant on the plant’s survival.
Not to mention the disruption that will be heaped upon motorists and hauliers.
Ineos must also be held to account. They have conducted themselves disgracefully and should hang their tiny frazzled heads in shame. Their pigheaded “my way or the highway” attitude, shutting the plant when the strike was called off, citing health and safety, was disingenuous to say the least.
And as for their threats not to reopen unless the union kowtows to their new demands is nothing short of strong-armed blackmail.
Ineos or Outeos they have a moral if not financial obligation to the thousands of families dependent on the plant’s survival, as well as a duty to repay the trust and money invested by way of financial incentives and lucrative tax breaks from Westminster (which should have made sure this squabble did not flare up).
However, Alex Salmond has held talks between the bickering factions. And if anyone can settle this dispute I believe oor Alex can.
But I would ask that he make it a precondition that Ineos and Unite leave their dummies behind in the nursery and go about this serious matter in an adult and professional manner.
The people of Grangemouth, and indeed Scotland, deserve no less.
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