On Friday 30 September, workers at LyondellBasell’s Berre L'Etang plant near Marseille voted to prolong their 3-day strike until Monday 3 October lunchtime, in protest of the planned closure of their plant. They have also blocked access and exit of products at the company's Fos-sur-Mer Caban chemical plant. Yet, representatives of the CGT union covering nearby plants, including Total's La Mede, Exxon Mobil's Fos-sur-Mer and Ineos's Lavera refineries, have decided not to join the strike for the time being. CGT official Marc Sarde said his union wants to avoid a situation like in October 2010, when a month-long strike paralyzed French refineries.
English: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/30/oil-france-refineries
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http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Petrochemicals/8406400
This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2011.