Failure of Leadership

I am struggling to recall an industrial dispute in which a trade union ended up shooting itself in the foot - both feet arguably - in the manner of Unite at Grangemouth.

For weeks now Unite has been running a high profile and aggressive campaign against the owners of the Grangemouth site, Ineos, egged on by certain commentators in the press - yet the union has now signed up to an agreement which is, arguably, much tougher than the deal that was on the table only a few days ago.

Now this is because Unite began to believe its own propaganda and badly overplayed its hand - by calling a strike that had no real purpose and served only to poison industrial relations with Ineos even further.

The end result is that Unite has signed up to a package which includes:

• A three-year 'no strike' agreement
• A three-year pay freeze
• A much inferior company pension scheme  
• An end to the practice of full-time union conveners operating at Grangemouth 

Now in return, Ineos will reopen the Grangemouth plant immediately, rehire up to 2,000 contractors who were laid off after the complex was shut down - and will invest £300 million to handle imported shale gas from America. 

But of course these 'good elements' of the deal were always on the table and the spark that led to the dispute - a strike over the 'treatment' of a full-time union convener - has resulted in full-time union conveners being abandoned altogether.

In future, local union reps at the site will be 'hands-on' employees first and foremost - with time off to conduct their union duties when required - which presumably will be properly managed and monitored.  

Apparently the news of a reprieve for Grangemouth's was greeted by huge cheers from the workforce, who had gathered at the plant to hear the announcement - which speaks volumes  about Unite's appalling leadership during the dispute.

I imagine there will be astonishment amongst the workforce at the words of the union's Scottish regional secretary - Pat Rafferty - who told the waiting press:

"Relief will ring right round the Grangemouth community, and across Scotland today. Hundreds of jobs that would have been lost can now be saved and £300m will be invested into the plant."

Yet only days earlier Unite had told Ineos to stick its rescue plan where the sun don't shine and advised its members to prepare to man the barricades - which is completely at odds with what the union is now saying, in public at least.

So, this is not the finest hour for Scotland's trade unions especially when you consider that just down the road in South Lanarkshire Council, a Labour council - yes a Labour council - has imposed changes upon hundreds of workers by threatening to terminate people's contracts of employment and offer re-engagement on inferior terms.

Yet in that particular case the unions stood aside and abandoned people to their fate.  

Unbelievable.