While there is still much to be done and, if we are to believe, much is promised for the future, a key part of the site will disappear with confirmation of the plant’s closure from next year. On the face of it, 400 jobs are expected to go. In reality, across the wider supply chain, job losses will run into the thousands.
The refinery was not going to last forever. Its age and the impact of necessarily changing markets were key challenges. The fact that these facts have been known for a long time only makes it an even more bitter pill to swallow for the workers, who have once again been let down by an international corporation and two governments.
The news is a hard blow for the workers. (Image: free)
If workers were paid a pound for every time a lockdown was accompanied by the promise of a prosperous future just around the corner, they wouldn’t need to work at all. The truth is that we are looking at another failure of planning, intervention and strategy. Workers needed a stay of execution to ease the transition. Timing is everything, but the government’s clock is ticking slower – not by months, but by years.
So is this an isolated problem in a declining industry? Hardly. On the same day that the death knell for Falkirk’s Grangemouth refinery sounded, Alexander Dennis – a beacon of hope for Scotland’s renewable industry – announced the axing of 160 jobs. The ADL claims that government funding for zero-emission buses is “disproportionately benefiting” foreign competitors with lower labour costs. Clearly, the playing field is uneven.
In recent months, workers at SGL Carbon near Inverness have seen their jobs cut due to a lack of demand for offshore wind turbine materials. Harland and Wolff (the latest owners of the BiFab shipyards) have stated that the Methil and Arnish yards on Lewis are again under threat. In reality, not only are we not creating the thousands of jobs that have been promised, we are actively losing some of the ones that already exist.
Even though turbines are being built and many more will be built, STUC analysis showed that in the last year alone, turnover in offshore and onshore wind had increased by a total of £3.5bn, but the number of jobs had fallen. If you look at your energy bills or try to find a job in the green energy sector, you would be forgiven for thinking that we are not a country with renewable potential at all.
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Last week the Scottish Government published its Green Industrial Strategy without too much fuss. We were involved in the final stages of its development and, as you might expect, were highly critical. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that, in the absence of an alternative vision, we are determined to prostrate ourselves at the feet of international finance with the misguided and frankly outdated view that the benefits will be passed on to others.
Across the world, countries have abandoned the “market-led” approach to industrial strategy that has seen domestic industries hollowed out and communities enriched over decades. The US has its Inflation Reduction Act and the EU has its European Green Deal. The Scottish Government has ignored the failures of the past and prepared a strategy more suited to the 1990s than to the challenges and opportunities we face today.
Admittedly, the Scottish Government does not possess all the powers it would need to fully implement versions of the strategies outlined above. And for the past 15 years, the UK Conservative Government has been using force to demolish the industry. However, early hopes that the new spirit of cooperation between Holyrood and Westminster would deliver justice for workers through state action have been dashed.
In July, Sir Keir Starmer said it was his “duty” to create these jobs. Petroineos obviously did not share that sentiment. This should come as no surprise. These are multinational companies making huge profits on a global scale. The first step politicians took to defraud the workers and community of Grangemouth was to leave such essential parts of our infrastructure in the exclusive control of private hands seeking profit at all costs.
Successive UK governments have called on the wolves to watch the sheep. We are seeing this again in Scotland through the Green Industrial Strategy. This was not so much a strategy as a glossy marketing pitch that sought private investment and served multinational corporations rather than our communities.
This market-driven approach has not been abandoned around the world without good reason. Countries have struggled to build industries that can create decent jobs. An obsession with the financial sector has diverted wealth to concentrated areas. The privatisation of key industries has undermined the government’s ability to shape and steer our economy. Just look at how our politicians break down when businesses tell them they should not end zero-hour contracts, ban firing and rehiring or ensure all workers are covered by sick pay.
Across the UK’s critical infrastructure, from our energy system to buses and railways to steel manufacturing, private companies have been left to rake in profits with little regard for the long-term future of, or importance to, workers and their communities.
Today we are left with the sadness and worry that will consume the workers directly affected by the closure. The rumours of investment and action plans by politicians, while welcome, will be a gentle consolation to those workers now seeking new jobs in an industry that those same politicians have unforgivably failed.
Mark my words: as long as we are dominated by private interests profiting from the profits of our critical infrastructure, Grangemouth will be repeated. Our support will go to any party or parties that can finally produce interventions that will reverse these appalling acts of industrial vandalism. Sadly, history tells us that we must not hold our breath.
Roz Foyer is the Secretary General of STUC
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