Unite turns up heat Grangemouth –
Unite turned up the heat on Labour politicians in February and secured a commitment for £200m of additional investment in Grangemouth after months of campaigning, writes Conrad Landin.
General secretary Sharon Graham led a demonstration of Grangemouth workers which placed 400 hard hats at the doorstep of Scottish Labour’s conference in Glasgow. These symbolised the 400 jobs that will be directly lost if Grangemouth refinery is allowed to close.
After prime minister Sir Keir Starmer ended weeks of inaction with his promise of investment, Unite vowed to continue the fight to Keep Grangemouth Working.
Unite members delivered the hard hats to the conference centre for Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, laying them at the entrance to the secure zone before being turned away by security guards.
Addressing the crowd outside Glasgow’s Scottish Event Campus, the general secretary said, “As redundancy notices rained down on Grangemouth a matter of days ago, most politicians were silent.
“Well let’s say very clearly, to the politicians here today, if you throw these workers on the scrapheap it will never be forgotten, it will never be forgiven and we will not move on. Unite is not going to give up this fight.
Labour had abandoned its promise of investing “hundreds of millions of pounds” in saving the jobs at Grangemouth.
But when Keir Starmer spoke at the conference, two days after Unite’s protest, he announced that the UK government would put £200m of funding from the National Wealth Fund into Grangemouth.
Reacting to the announcement, the general secretary said, “This is welcome news after months of our campaign and supported by the community of Grangemouth, Keir Starmer and the UK government have finally listened. This needs to be the start not the end in delivering a real workers’ transition for Grangemouth.
“Clear timescales will be important as well as details on jobs.”
The PM said the funding would be available for “co-investment with the
9 unite buildingWORKER Spring 2025
private sector” and was intended for bringing new businesses to Grangemouth in areas such as bioengineering, biofuels, or hydrogen energy.
But significant uncertainty remains for the current workforce. Unite electrical convenor Alex McCabe said, “The writing’s on the wall for Grangemouth. The government has let us down – jobs have gone to other plants. Our members that can are looking for jobs elsewhere – Hinkley, London, central Scotland. Unite has given it a right good go, but money talks and without substantial funds Grangemouth will only fail.”
Unite Scotland secretary Derek Thomson added, “We’re putting the people first – while they’re debating their policies in there, we’re showing how many people are going to be affected by their inaction.”
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Conrad Landin
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