2024-08-03 12:00:13
Despite the strike, the Seveso site is asking vehicles to continue to pass through the blue gates. The 6am shift, then the 2pm shift and finally the 10pm shift are meant to secure ExxonMobil’s sprawling petrochemical complex – a maze of pipes and chimneys – at Port-Jerome-sur-Seine, the name of the new commune that includes Notre-Dame-de-Gravenchon in the Seine-Maritime department.
However, since the end of May, at the initiative of the FO and CGT, the steam cracker, the key unit of the plant that converts oil into plastics for half a century, has not produced any products. The banner at the entrance recalls the demands of the inter-union association, which also includes the CFE-CGC and the CFDT: “Not closed”, “Chemistry must exist”.
On April 11, the US ExxonMobil Group announced plans by 2025 to shut down most of its petrochemical activities in Normandy while keeping its refinery, which has been operating since 1933, on the same platform to cope with competition. Compared with the United States and Asia, ‘Almost a billion euros’ loss In the past five years, the group was designated. On the contrary, according to our information, Esso’s refining subsidiaries generated profits of more than 1 billion euros.
Initially, there was talk of cutting 677 positions, including 30 at the Paris regional headquarters in Nanterre. After eight rounds of negotiations with elected employees, management has now targeted 659 positions. This will also involve cuts in the refinery workforce – some services, such as maintenance or IT, will be shared.
‘We are facing a wall’
For the unions, the problem remains. The largest US oil major (global profits of $36 billion, or 33 billion euros in 2023) is still preparing to cut about a third of jobs at its Normandy plant. ‘We are facing a wall’”, said Pierre-Antoine Auger, a representative of the majority FO union. And all this was done without fanfare during the midsummer Paris Olympics. “In the media, we give the impression that we have been relegated to second or even third place”a staff representative added under a tent in the visitor parking lot.
“Exxon management treated us with a level of cruelty that we could never imagine”Germinal Lancelin, CGT secretary for the petrochemical sector, insisted. Contacted, the company admitted “The atmosphere was tense at times, but there was respect for social dialogue.”
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