Unite wants union recognition restored at Ineos Grangemouth plant

The Unite union is to challenge the decision by the owners of the Grangemouth petrochemical plant to refuse it official recognition.

The union said most workers at the plant still wanted Unite to represent them in talks with Ineos.

In April, the firm said it was ending collective bargaining agreements at the plant.

Four years ago industrial action at the site led to a threat by Ineos to close the facility completely.

Grangemouth is Scotland's biggest industrial plant.

The Unite union represents hundreds of worker there and has been locked in a long dispute with owners Ineos.

In October 2013, the company's chairman and founder Jim Ratcliffe announced the complex would be closed with the loss of about 800 jobs.

The decision was later reversed after workers agreed to a survival plan which included a three-year pay freeze.

In the latest breakdown in relations between management and the unions, Ineos said earlier this year that it would no longer give Unite official recognition at the chemical processing plant.

Unite said it has balloted the workforce and found more than 50% of workers still wanted the union to represent them.

It now plans to challenge Ineos through official channels.

This will involve an application to the independent Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) to require Ineos to recognise Unite.

If the union can demonstrate a certain level of membership and support for recognition, then the CAC can issue a declaration making recognition compulsory.

Unite's assistant general secretary Howard Beckett said: "We now have a considerable majority of the workers who have signed up to say they want the union recognised at the site as is their legal right.

"The company must now negotiate a new deal."

He added: " We hope the company will depart from its current strategies and enter negotiations about re-instating Unite at the chemicals complex. That would be the sensible option.

"But in any case we are applying to the Central Arbitration Committee and we are confident that they will re-instate the union, even if the company decide not to negotiate."

Ineos declined to comment on the issue.