Total: 500,000 tonnes of oil trapped in Dunkirk
Employees of the Total refinery at Dunkirk, under threat of closure, blocked Friday tanks containing 500,000 tons of crude oil, by removing the pumping mechanisms, three days of a meeting to decide their future.
"We want to refine. We do not want this (oil) crude go away from here, "said Philippe Wullens, Steward South (majority site), evoking a" war chest ". He said Total has made a profit of 200 million euros from the time of purchase of this oil in the fall and today, due to the increase in prices. The employees also say they have learned that the management of Total planned to ensure that oil can be loaded on ships to other refineries."This oil should not leave the tank so that things do not stop," he said, estimating that 400 million euros worth of stock.
Several dozen employees from the site of Flanders, in the case since September, traveled Friday to dawn on the storage area of crude oil located at Gravelines, and disassembled electronic components essential to the operation of pumps used to extract the contents of the tanks. Some components will be given to state services, another in the region and a third in the urban community of Dunkirk, knowing that all equipment is necessary to restart the pumps, said Marcel Croquefer, secretary of the cluster Chemistry CGT Dunkirk cheap payday advance .
A radicalization of the movement evoked
Employees are then symbolically held a lock port of Dunkirk.They wanted to question management port, 18% of turnover depends on the refinery. "This refinery can and must restart now", even if a mutation of the site must be decided for the future, said Croquefer, suggesting a possible "radicalization" of the movement.
If farmers spread manure or milk to express their discontent, "in the refinery there are petroleum products," he warned.
Proposals for the future of the Flanders refinery, which employs 380 employees and 400 people from sub-contractors, should be announced Monday at a central works council (CEC). Employees are expected to travel to many in La D?fense on Monday to be heard.
The threat of closure had resulted in late February several days of strikes in all French refineries group.Unions had set an end after the guarantees provided by Total on the future of refining activity in France. Since then, employees of Dunkirk only continue their strike began January 12.