This research is an opportunity to make your voice heard and to ensure that worker reflections shape discussion over Grangemouth’s future. Please get in touch by email: (ewan.gibbs@glasgow.ac.uk) (Riyoko.shibe@glasgow.ac.uk).

The Just Transition Commission is working with Glasgow University researchers, Ewan Gibbs and Riyoko Shibe, to record worker responses to the recent announcement of the Grangemouth refinery closure and reflections on what the future of the site should look like. In November, the Commission published a statement expressing concern about the sudden closure of the refinery and called for action by government and industry to support a just transition.

The JTC is an independent advisory body. Riyoko and Ewan are working as independent researchers under the direction of the JTC. The aim is to collect and represent the perspective of Grangemouth workers responding to the closure announcement. We are seeking to speak to workers from refining but also from other sections of the complex.

To help ensure we gather a range of voices, we want to speak to men and women from across occupational backgrounds and to include older and younger workers. We are keen to hear from workers about their time working at the plant and their thoughts on what its future should look like. Interviews will typically last around 30 minutes to an hour.

During the interviews, we will ask workers about

• their thoughts on employment at Grangemouth
• if and how work at the complex has changed in recent years
• their thoughts on the closure announcement.

Primarily, we are interested in hearing what workers think should happen at Grangemouth and what a fair future for them, their colleagues and the town would look like. All participants have the right to remain anonymous if they would prefer to speak to us without being named. We will use the interviews to inform a report that will be published by the JTC.

The JTC’s report is likely to be of interest to media, and given how important the subject matter is, we expect it will help inform political discussions including parliamentary debates or committee hearings.

Riyoko Shibe is a PhD researcher who is studying Grangemouth’s connections to the oil industry.

Dr Ewan Gibbs researches responses to employment changes in Scotland’s energy and manufacturing industries. His first book, Coal Country, addressed the end of coal mining and he has also worked with unions and workers who were impacted by recent redundancies at Rolls Royce.