The Grangemouth petrochemical works near Falkirk is to close down with the loss of more than 800 jobs.
The refinery, owned by Ineos, is the largest industrial site in Scotland, and produces most of the fuel for Scotland, the north of England and Northern Ireland.
In addition to the direct workers, the site employs sub-contractors, meaning the final toll of job losses may be more than 1,000.
Employees were told at a meeting this morning and called the decision "shocking".
The closure of the refinery puts at risk the whole Grangemouth site which has 1,370 workers in total.
Ineos chairman Jim Ratcliffe confirmed this at the weekend.
The company had put a deal to the workforce which included a pay freeze for the next two years, no bonuses until 2016, the closure of the final salary pension scheme and a reduced shift allowance, but this was rejected.
Ineos released a statement after the vote, saying:
"Sadly, the shareholders reached the conclusion that they could not see a future for Grangemouth without change and therefore could no longer continue to fund the business.
"As a result of this decision, the directors of the petrochemicals business have had no option but to engage the services of a liquidator. It is anticipated that a liquidation process will commence in a week."
Falkirk's unemployment figures show 3.8% of the town's working age population is unemployed, and the potential addition of more than a thousand to this number would increase this greatly.