Fracking boss caught undermining workers’ rights

This week, fracking boss Jim Ratcliffe was revealed to have secretly lobbied former Chancellor George Osborne to weaken the power of workers’ unions. The meeting saw the Ineos owner lobbying to cut pensions, restrict the ability of unions to organise strike action and demand even lower taxes for corporations. The meeting took place only a few months before Ineos threatened to close the Grangemouth plant permanently unless unions agreed to a pay freeze, a pensions overhaul and a three year no strike deal.  

Documents sent by Ineos to the UK Government ahead of the meeting were unearthed by a recent Freedom of Information request by our sister Friends of the Earth organisation based in London.  They completely undermine Ineos’s insistence on the need for shale gas to protect jobs at Grangemouth, and make it clear that the company’s motives are far more profit-driven.

Read the full story in the Sunday Herald http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15118248.Ineos_boss_lobbied_Osborne_to_slash_union_rights_and_taxes

And see the documents released under FoI in full at The Ferret https://theferret.scot/ineos-boss-lobbied-osborne-unions-fracking/