We cannot allow oil barons to make their workforces pay for the climate crisis they have created, argues Simon Midgley

On 12 September, Petroineos (a joint venture between the Chinese state-owned PetroChina and British billionaire Sir James Ratcliffe’s oil giant Ineos), confirmed its plan to end refining of oil at Grangemouth by June 2025, which it had announced back in November 2023. This means that 400 out of the 500 workers employed there could lose their jobs.

The firm claims it has no choice but to do this in order to “adapt to global pressures affecting the refining market”, blaming the ongoing move away from petrol and diesel fuels for transport. It also says this move is just “business as usual”, as it transforms Grangemouth from a refinery of fossil fuels, to being just an import terminal for fossil fuels produced elsewhere.

Back in November, when Labour was still in opposition, Ed Miliband, now the Labour Government’s energy and net zero secretary, called on the Scottish and then Tory UK Governments to “get round the table urgently with business, workers, and unions to understand how jobs can be safeguarded for the future.”

In July, after being newly elected as UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer said the future of Grangemouth was “a priority”.

But so far, the only support on offer is an extra £20 million to be added to £80 million of funding scheduled for investment in the Falkirk area as a whole, which Ed Miliband believes will, over the next 30 years, create 1,660 jobs. That’s way too little, way too slowly.

There is no doubt that there must be a full transition from production of fossil fuels to their sustainable green replacements, but this should not be at the expense of the workers. Nor can it be a process of replacing fossil fuels produced in the UK with those imported from abroad. This would be exporting jobs and importing carbon.

Since the industrial revolution, business empires like Ineos, their shareholders and billionaires like Ratcliffe, have grown filthy rich from the use of fossil fuels. They should not be allowed to get away with making their workforce pay the price of the climate crisis this has caused. Workers must not be dumped on the scrapheap along with their industry.

Worldwide, there have been paper commitments to a Just Transition away from fossil fuels, defined as ensuring that no country is left behind or pushed behind in the transition to low-carbon and environmentally sustainable economies.

But if the transition from fossil fuels is left to be imposed by the ‘market forces’ of profitability in world markets, then the cost of this will inevitably be imposed on the workers in that industry, in terms of lost jobs and lost livelihoods. This would be a most Unjust Transition, and workers must fight it.

The Grangemouth ‘transition’ is happening at the same time as some 2,500 jobs are being cut at Tata Steel. Prior to the general election, Unite the union planned a mass rally to defend Tata workers but this was cancelled to negotiate redundancy terms. The workers at Grangemouth are also Unite members and the union should be organising strike action and mass rallies to fight for a just transition.

Workers at Grangemouth have a history of militancy and strength. They should demand that the refinery must be transformed into a powerhouse of green industry, producing low-carbon hydrogen, clean fuels and sustainable aviation fuels. They should use their collective power to force Petroineos to accept that not a single job will be lost whilst this transition takes place. If necessary, they should strike and occupy the plant to achieve this.