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Latest update: 17/02/2010
- France - strike - Total
Total workers storm Dunkirk refinery, prepare for 48-hour strike
Employees of oil giant Total's beleaguered Dunkirk refinery stormed the administrative building and occupied offices to protest a possible closure. Total workers across France will stage a 48-hour strike in solidarity beginning on Wednesday.
REUTERS - Workers at Total's troubled Dunkirk refinery stormed its administrative building and occupied management offices to protest against a possible closure, Total and a trade union source told Reuters on Tuesday.
Workers in all Total refineries across France will begin a 48 hour strike from Feb. 17 to back their Dunkirk colleagues, two Total trade union spokesmen told Reuters on Monday. Unions held a strike in early January but this did not impact supply.
About a hundred Dunkirk strikers on Tuesday pushed aside police and security forces in the hall of the administrative site to get to the offices, a union source said.
Total, Europe's largest refiner, said only about 30 strikers were occupying the offices of the plant that employs around 600 staff and stopped producing fuel products in September due to low margins and low demand.
The local director had left his office beforehand, both Total and the union source said.
"The management's offices were invaded this morning," Maxime Delanoix, head of communication at the Dunkirk refinery told Reuters by telephone. "There are about 30 people occupying the offices at the entrance of the site but they allow workers who are not striking to come and go."
Delanoix said these strikers were now holding a meeting to discuss future action.
French workers have held managers hostage several times amid increasingly bitter labour disputes as some companies cut costs to boost profits in times of recession by closing sites or slashing jobs.
A strike has been going on since mid-January at the 137,000 barrels-per-day Dunkirk refinery, which accounts for 13 percent of Total's refining capacities in France.
Total has been struggling for several years with its European refining branch and has vowed to cut production capacity by 500,000 bpd between 2007 and 2011.
The French group delayed on Feb. 1 a decision on whether to close Dunkirk permanently to avoid embarrassing the government before regional elections on March 14-21, analysts have said.
Total officials told Reuters on Monday the management would hold on March 29 an extraordinary meeting with unions to decide on the future of the plant.
But unions said they were fed up awaiting the fate of the refinery's future after
"The date of March 29 is too late. We've had enough, we want to be informed," said Philippe Wullens, representative of the Sud labour union.
Total has said no redundancies would take place if Dunkirk was closed and workers would either be offered another job in the group or be given early retirement.
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Comments (1)
on strick , a tradition and inefficient french way
sorry to hear about so much employees in Dunkrik will be resettled. as expected, the employees will be on strike in France, the other thinking comes in the mind?? Total is a private company, one side he should take the social responsibilities, the other side he must survive or adapt to the market, no matter what close the factory or not , it is the decision made by the direction board on base of the whole group mision, vision or even dead or alive..if the factory in dunkrik has to be closed, in order to keep Total whole stragety of the group...it is worth to sacrifice the small part to save the main part...if Total can well resettle the employees in Dunkrik, it is good, even they could do it prefect, it is understanding, in the new world., the employees and the boss both take the risks to the fiercing market, loss and win both could be..on strick to protest for what if they can be resettled..if they are competitive enough in the markets, or they just want a stable job from generation to generation in Dunkrik? if so, it is sad.for france, and french people..because they are not ready to compete, to improve, to advance , adventure something new instead of just expect on kind of CDI,for life stable job..which will stop the country keep going on..if the people all think like this..sorry again for that.
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