They don’t let up the pressure. Since May 25, the ExxonMobil petrochemical site in Port-Jérôme (Seine-Maritime) has been blocked by strikers who denounce a plan to eliminate 677 jobs.
At the start of the week, the police intervened twice to clear the blocked accesses but the roadblocks were immediately put back in place. With the site shut down, management has just taken union officials to court, we learned from reliable sources.
According to Germinal Lancelin, CGT delegate at the refinery, management rejects the unions’ demands. He also deplores the fact that the CGT and FO coordinators of the movement are specifically “attacked, as individuals,” by the management of ExxonMobil, which summoned them for summary proceedings before the Le Havre judicial court this Thursday morning to “demand the lifting of the roadblocks.
Rally in front of the court this Thursday
For the CGT central union delegate Christophe Aubert, one of the two officials targeted, “management has hardened relations” with this assignment. In response, the unions are calling for a strike by all staff at the Port-Jérôme site this Thursday, with a rally in front of the court in the morning then in front of the site in the afternoon.
ExxonMobil management confirmed these assignments, explaining that it wanted to “deploy all means necessary to guarantee the safety of the site, people and the environment” but also to “avoid shutting down the refinery”. “For this, we asked the courts to rule on the legality of this blocking action” which has prevented the entry of trucks necessary “for the continuation of activities” since June 19, because “the supply of chemicals is essential to operating a refinery,” emphasized the site management.
