FIRST MINISTER Alex Salmond and prime minister Gordon Brown are set to meet at an unprecedented Downing Street summit to discuss plans to avert a fuel crisis over the Grangemouth Strike.
The move comes as a flotilla of international ships laden with around 65,000 tonnes of fuel is to arrive in Scotland in a bid to fend off public panic and fuel shortages.
Salmond and Brown are likely to meet tomorrow at Downing Street, where they will discuss the strike. It will be the first time the two leaders, who have a famously frosty
relationship, will have had a meeting in London.
A spokesperson for the first minister said: "It is quite likely there will be a meeting between the first minister and the prime minister on Monday, depending on the course of events."
The emergency fuel supplies will be ferried up the River Forth on seven tankers from the ports of
Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Gotenburg. Trade unionists believe the convoy will assist the striking union, Unite, which is pulling 1200 members out from the massive petro-chemical plant from today, by lessening the impact of the strike on the public and preventing a backlash against the union. "We have no problem with this move whatsoever. We don't want to hurt the public, we want to harm the company," a spokeswoman said.
Unite is fighting to stop the owners of Grangemouth, Ineos, changing pension provisions. The union says the move amounts to a massive pay cut for its members.
The Unite spokeswoman added: "The shipment will not stop Ineos loosing million of pounds. The irony is that all they are saving by closing our pension scheme is £1.5 million. We have no issue with what fuel supplies are brought in during the strike, all we want to do is stop Ineos making any money during this period of industrial action."
The international shipment - an unprecedent import of fuel - should keep Scotland functioning throughout the 48-hour strike and beyond. Once the strike is over, Ineos claims, it could still take as long as three weeks to get Grangemouth up and running again and fuel flowing.
The UK's business minister John Hutton says he is now confident that there is enough fuel to get through the crisis. Hutton added: "It is wrong to cause this much disruption to the Scottish people and the Scottish economy."
The country's oil and gas operators are also urging the UK government to intervene in the dispute. They are panicked by the strike closing the Forties pipeline from today. The fuel line provides 30 per cent of Britain's daily oil output.
Some 700,000 barrels of oil and 80 million cubic metres of gas a day are taken by the pipeline to BP's Kinneil plant, which is powered by Grangemouth. Unite, however, says it will allow the Kinneil plant to keep going throughout the strike, enabling supplies to start flowing soon after the strike ends, and limiting the long term impact of the industrial action.
Some petrol stations in Scotland are saying that they have run out of fuel causing the Scottish government's tourism ministry to urge members of the public to go for a walk rather than take a Sunday drive today.
However, John Hutton's office has brokered a deal between oil companies, independent fuel traders and the major supermarket chains which will ensure that fuel resources will be shared. This will spread the pain', and avoid the perception of massive shortages should one supplier run out of fuel triggering panic buying.
Gordon Grant, Grangemouth general manager, made an eleventh hour appeal to the union last night to ward off the strike, saying: "We need to modernise everything we do. We need to be competitive in everything we do, pensions is just one part of that modernisation programme."
The STUC last night described the company as "oppressive, unfair and unjust", and accused it of gouging money from the pockets of its staff.
The strike could cost the UK economy up to £50 million a day, with the Treasury left with a tab of around £25 million.
Unite also says that Ineos has claimed that strike breakers will be present during the industrial action. Unite refuted the claim, with a spokeswoman saying that these strike-breakers' were in fact union members who will be on strike and not receiving pay but will remain at the site during the industrial action to ensure safety.
Oil and Gas UK chief executive, Malcolm Webb, said that the crisis was now affecting some 80 companies which were not connected to the dispute. "It is now time for the government at the highest level to step in and take all the necessary actions to ensure that the country is not held to ransom in this manner."
He appealed for the government to get Unite and Ineos around the negotiating table to prevent the strike "hitting offshore production".
Unite agreed yesterday with the Scottish and Westminster government for a tanker to fuel up with enough supplies to ensure the emergency services in Scotland are fully powered over the period of the strike in order to protect public safety.
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