Grangemouth will reopen but jobs are not guaranteed says Ineos
Ineos has confirmed a deal to reopen the Grangemouth plant after £300m required to keep it open is secured.
Calum MacLean, the chairman of Grangemouth Petrochemicals has said that both the petrochemicals plant and refinery will reopen, after a last minute deal was reached with the Unite union.
The news, MacLean says, comes as a relief to the 2,000 contractors who were laid off as a result of the plant being closed.
Unite has offered a three-year no-strike deal in an effort to prevent the closure of Grangemouth. This, said MacLean to the BBC, should give the site time to move into a "competitive position" – it is currently losing £50m a year.
The union has also agreed not to strike during the 45-60-day consultation period to which the agreement is subject.
Speaking to journalists he said "there is a future for the site" but could not guarantee there would not be job losses. He did add, though, that, now that the investment the plant needs has been secured, job losses will be limited.
MacLean said that, if the union stance now being taken was taken last week, the current situation would not have occured.
Following the government's efforts to find a solution to the crisis, Scottish secretary Alistair Camichael says that the news brings a new optimism to the future: "This is the outcome we have worked towards and one which Scotland and Grangemouth deserve. There are undoubtedly lessons to be learned from this dispute but for now we should focus on the immediate success of securing the site’s future."