Union view: 'This greedy, out-of-control company is risking Scots jobs'

Yet one man has forced it into a state of extreme shutdown.

Had it been a trade union that had brought Grangemouth to a standstill, ministers would be hitting the airwaves to condemn our recklessness, vowing to legislate us into non-existence.

However, this is not a union: this is an individual, Jim Ratcliffe, a man who wields colossal power but with doubtful responsibility. Of his behaviour we hear nothing from ministers, not a word of criticism emerges from Number 10.

With the AA warning that fuel supplies are being compromised by Grangemouth's closure, ministers must be assessing the wisdom of allowing unaccountable figures to control essential commodities, only to abuse their power by plunging a national industry and an entire community into uncertainty.

None of this is necessary. At talks last week with Acas, Unite offered to suspend all industrial action in order that talks on the future of the plant could convene with the plant fully working. The company walked from these talks only to issue "sign or be sacked" letters to staff. Clearly, the threat to impose seriously detrimental new terms of employment - the first step to wholescale casualisation at Grangemouth - on the workforce must be withdrawn for any meaningful progress on the future of the plant to ensue.

Ineos is perpetrating a campaign of fear against its own employees. It has attacked the workers' union, Unite, and their representative, Stephen Deans, looking for ways to suggest that his legitimate Labour Party activities were a matter for a disciplinary investigation.

Negative press stories have painted a picture of a bleak future for the site, to petrify staff into a state of such despair that they then sign away the rights, pay and the pensions for which they have saved all their working lives.

Ineos' claim to be in "financial distress" is highly dubious. This is a £43 billion-pound business that made £2bn in profit last year. Ineos' own accounts predict the chemical operation will make over £500 million.

Despite the contrived obscurity of the accounts, one thing is clear: it has avoided paying a penny in tax for four years. Its finances, including relocation to tax-haven Switzerland, are a mystery. How can a company simultaneously declare it is worthless while its accounts show that sales in the last year jumped 50%, gross profits grew by 20% and operating profit increased by a whopping 56%?

This is why we have asked HMRC to investigate the finances of the secretive man and his company that grip Scotland's premier industrial site in a chokehold while it strips wages - even as it holds out a hand for £150m of taxpayers' money.

Ineos now runs a very real risk of destroying good Scottish jobs, out of control with greed and power.

There can be no greater question facing our nation than the security of our energy supply, and Grangemouth is at the heart of our fuel supply and yet it has been plunged into peril. Two days ago, the workforce was sent letters of menace, pressurising people to sign away their livelihoods by 6pm tomorrow or face "notices of termination".

Unite had worked tirelessly to drag the company to the negotiating table only for it to walk away just as a settlement was at hand on the whim of Jim Ratcliffe.

We are determined to get the company to behave responsibly. With the right leadership, the world-class facility has a bright future ahead of it. Its workforce serves our country honourably. Those men and women deserve better.

Our message to the company is simple: open the plant today, drop your threats to the workforce, and get back to the negotiating table.