Richard Leonard MSP: Grangemouth workers must not be abandoned like the miners
The workers of Grangemouth have a detailed plan how to save their jobs and transition to a greener future, they must be listened to.
Last week I attended a Christmas party hosted by former miners. They put on a meal and a band so that they and their families could come together, exchange their news and have a good time together.
Just a few days before I had arranged for a delegation of workers from the oil refinery in Grangemouth to explain to MSPs that there is an alternative to closure.
They had come in their hundreds to the Scottish Parliament to demand that both governments step in to save their jobs – and their very community.
It is critical that, as we move away from fossil fuels towards green energy, we do not abandon workers in those industries but ensure a truly just transition as they move into jobs. Ministers have spoken of having "as short a gap as possible" but that is not good enough. If there is to be a just transition, there should be no gap.
Unite – the union that represents the workers at the refinery – has produced a detailed plan to save the jobs which includes moving to the production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). That will take investment and time – but their report demonstrates that it can be done, and has been done elsewhere.
The UK is planning to increase the use of SAF 35-fold by 2030. It is more cost effective to convert an existing refinery to SAF production than build a new one. We need both governments to step in and work together to pause the redundancies while this and other plans are independently considered as a matter of urgency.
We cannot allow them to abandon these workers and this community, and write the refinery off because its owners, a billionaire tax exile and an overseas government, think they can make even more money by investing elsewhere.
We know that throwing a highly-skilled workforce onto the dole or forcing them to move away will leave Grangemouth decimated.
Forty years ago those same miners who organised the Christmas party were on strike trying to save their jobs, their industry and their very communities. They lost their jobs, and their industry has gone. We cannot allow the same to happen to Grangemouth.