'Month of fuel shortages' warning
Petrol
A strike by workers at a major oil refinery could lead to fuel chaos from next Friday.
Up to 1,200 workers at the Grangemouth site in Scotland are set to walk out on April 27 and 28 in a row over pensions.
The strike could cripple supplies for a month in Scotland and the north of England, according to the refinery's owner Ineos, which says it has already begun to shut down the site ahead of the strike for security reasons.
The stoppage will effectively close down a large proportion of North Sea oil production as well as gas production that goes through Grangemouth, a spokesman said.
Union Unite, who called the strike in protest at plans to exclude new workers from the company's final salary pension scheme and other changes, says the whole of the UK will be hit.
Phil McNulty, national officer of Unite, insisted the proposed changes were 'unreasonable' and 'unnecessary'.
Ineos chief executive Tom Crotty said: 'The union is well aware that a 48-hour strike will cause fuel chaos in Scotland and the North of England for weeks on end.
'This is a huge oil refinery and they know you can't just turn it on and off like a tap.
'A month is our best guess but safety considerations will be at the forefront of everything we do.
'It is not our wish to suspend production at Grangemouth but Unite has given us no choice.
'They have deliberately chosen a course of action that is the minimum pain for them but which will inflict the maximum pain on Scotland and the whole of the UK.'
A spokesman for the Scottish government said ministers had already put contingency measures in place.
© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.
Spread the good news round & start the panics nice & early
The country should then grind nicely to a halt, just in time for The Idiot Brown to suffer for it in the May Elections
BTW - I filled up our cars this morning
