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Industrial Action (Grangemouth)

May I first, through you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, reprimand the hon. Member for Brent, East (Sarah Teather) for referring to this as a ““petty”” dispute over pensions? It is all very well for us sitting here with our final salary pensions—much higher than anyone's in the industry—to call this a petty dispute when people's standards of living are being attacked. Is the Secretary of State aware that the breakdown of talks yesterday took place because although the trade union was willing to talk about the safety and integrity of the plant so that it could be started up very quickly, all the company seemed to be doing was talking through fancy public relations companies and bringing in very expensive barristers to threaten the trade union with action in the courts? In fact, the company did not try to negotiate at all. Oddly enough, it said that it wanted to return to the position of three months ago, yet this dispute, as we know, started eight months ago when the company brought new workers on site with different terms and conditions of employment from those already there—with no final salary pension scheme and contributions taken out of their salary, which was not the deal when BP sold the plant to INEOS. May I suggest that the solution is to put it to Mr. Jim Ratcliffe, the owner of INEOS, that if the company is willing to return to the position of eight months ago, when everyone coming on to the site had the same terms and conditions of employment—a final salary pension that is non-contributory, as it was under BP—the negotiations could be resumed with good will? Mr. Ratcliffe was willing to come and see me when he was lobbying to buy BP, and I am willing to meet him privately at any time to talk about how to solve the problem.