The strike in the Flanders Refinery in Dunkirk started on January 12th. The Total employees were fed up of the lack of respect shown by the oil company’s management. They demanded detailed information on the management’s exact plans, and that they should stop playing around with the workers’ emotions. They demanded that the “5-yearly stoppage” (a general maintenance requirement) be implemented, and that the refinery start work for a new 5-year period.
Why 5 years? Because that allows a period for developing, consulting and constructing a potentially viable industrial project with the employees. The hypothesis of professional change was not a taboo; but this is something that could only be considered in a context of providing guarantees for the Total employees, for the companies to whom work is sub-contracted, and by taking on board the idea that professional change should not rhyme with worker’s exclusion!
An important strike
The strike by the workers in the Flanders Refinery has had both national impact and importance, not only because the movement affected all the Total refineries, of course, but also because the national movement started in Dunkirk in mid-January.
The strike in the Flanders Refinery is one of those exemplary movements, from which we can learn and highlight the strengths and weaknesses so that we can all become stronger tomorrow. Châtellrault in 2009, that of Continental in Clairoix or the struggle in Phillips in Dreux in early 2010 (this struggle has been going on for several months!). And there are also all the struggles that get little or no coverage, including in activist circles, and that can testify to the workers will to resist and to stand up for their rights...and to win new rights, better working conditions, higher pay. Because these struggles, our struggles, are not just to defend what we already have.
But when strikes lead to open, non-sectarian discussion in general assemblies, and the workers start speaking about “what needs to be changed”, they are not far from asking themselves the question “What kind of society would we like to have?” and “How can we break with the current forms of organisation in society?” We need to bear in mind that this organisation is based on the exploitation of workers by a tiny minority: employers and shareholders.
And it bothers a lot of people when workers take their own affairs in hand in whatever way: the employers, the right-wing politicians, those who continue in various ways to support the - bad - tradition of scab unions, but also in another form all those who have taken on the specific job of speaking and even wanting to take decisions on behalf of the workers.
This might all seem as though we are deviating from the subject of the Total strike. But that is far from being the case!
* A refusal to allow themselves to be destroyed by decisions taken by others, and by purely financial considerations.
* A strike managed by the workers themselves, through General Assemblies; workers took their own decisions on the initiatives that were taken, and who decided that management no longer had any role to play in the refinery that it was no longer in fact managing.
* Stronger solidarity with their colleagues in the other Total sites that transformed the strike into a national movement with renewable strike actions. Many people wanted to see this strike become a “testimonial” action.
That’s what the Total strike is all about!
An active strike
In this plant, SUD is the majority union. The strike was managed by an inter-union committee of SUD/CGT/FO, and two daily general assemblies allowed all the workers to take part in the decision-making process, to define the actions and share information.
From January 12th, there was a strike picket at the refinery gates. Many demonstrations were organised in Dunkirk and Paris. Those that took place in front of the Total headquarters in La Défense (Paris) clearly showed that the management refused to meet the delegation of striking workers or their unions, and they set the police on the workers. After 3 weeks of strike, the strikers warned: “If Management persists with their refusal to meet the workers, we intend to take over the site; it belongs to us!” And this is indeed what happened, with the workers inviting the management to leave and to limit themselves to a few offices that they generously allowed them to use.... whereas the union flags and the strikers banners hung from the front of the refinery.
National strike
When the strike in Dunkirk was one month old, the CGT, CFDT, FO, CGC and Solidaires trade union federations of the chemical sector called for a national movement in all Total refineries. This led to the national extension of the struggle; it was considered by the Dunkirk strikers to be an important moment. The generalisation of the strike was not only based on the question of solidarity. The Total workers had plenty of reasons for going on strike, and rightfully so.
Sadly, after five days of daily voting to pursue the strike in General Assemblies, the CFDT federation, followed the next day by the CGT called for the strike to be called off.
The agreement that SUD failed to sign failed to take the basic reasons for the conflict into consideration – the support and solidarity for the employees in the Flanders Refinery that was under threat of closure. The main demand was that of upholding the “major stoppages” (for regular general maintenance that were scheduled for the following month, followed by the continued refinery activity on the site for the period that would allow for an in-depth consideration of the planned industrial reconversion.
Although the Total management mentioned that 5 other refineries would be preserved, there was no mention made of the level of activity or of the number of jobs that would be preserved on these five sites. Finally the “discussions” did not include any obligatory results and totally failed to take the initial demand of preservation of the activity of the Flanders Refinery into account.
Calling off this national strike movement was a bad thing for the striking workers of Dunkirk. It took some time to understand why the strike was called off, even though it had definitely reached a critical point in terms of the balance of power with the Total management and with the government. It will be necessary to collectively evaluate all of this.
A strike against exploitation
But for the moment the important thing is to continue supporting the striker in Dunkirk. All the mores so because we can count of many sources to support us: locally, of course as well as regionally and at national level. This is what is at stake: we need to build a wall of solidarity around our comrades in Total.
We are facing a wall of money, of cynicism, of inhumanity. Total’s profits for 2009 were almost 8 billion euros (and 2009 was the year of the economic crisis!), after having made 13.9 billion euros profit in 2008.
And the shareholders of Total want us to believe that they have no choice other than to close down the Flanders Refinery! There is indeed an alternative choice, and it is very simple: keep the refinery open, guarantee the future of the workers (both Total and sub-contractors) and too bad if it costs the shareholders a little money!
Thanks to the work of the Total employees, including those in Dunkirk, the shareholders pocketed 5.4 billion euros-worth of dividends in 2009; this is almost 3 times more than in 2000. On the basis of that alone they should be able to survive, even if the Flanders Refinery does not close down.
Meanwhile the definitive closure of the refinery would have very serious consequences for the Total workers as well as the sub-contractors and workers’ families.
The exploitation of the workers to the benefit of the shareholders is a common occurrence. It is this phenomenon that explains the crisis that is being used to try to convince us that we should accept the situation as it is, or even worse.
No! We refuse to accept! We shall not resign ourselves to this! We refuse to accept the violence of employers and social injustice!
Because the crisis is that of the capitalist system, a system organised on the basis of our exploitation. We need to confront this by unifying our resistance, bringing together all those who really want to see things change.
Strike and unified trade union actions
The question of trade union unity is a clear issue. The fact that this is not simple was again demonstrated by the Total conflict at national level. There was an inter-professional call to strike and demonstrate by CGT-CFDT-UNSA-FSU-Solidaires at national level for the 23rd March.
This day is obviously not an end to itself. The Solidaires unionist leaders are available to build a national inter-professional movement, linked to the reality and the social situation that we have already mentioned, including an evaluation of the strategies used in recent years in the various struggles.
Trade unionism is responsible for proposing actions that allow us to win, not just to count our numbers. We know that this is something shared by many collectives of activists in unions other that Soldiaires.
What we need is to bring together all those who are prepared to take on social confrontation, who are not in denial about the reality of class struggle. In other words, all those who would like to see genuine trade unionism; because what is trade unionism if not the collective organisation of workers as a social class, in order to defend their interests and create social change? The rest can at the best be called social support, of varying degrees.
What we want to build needs to be done with the workers; it is not something between activists, and even less a struggle for pseudo-power between trade-union organisations or within trade-union organisations.
We do not wish to examine, comment on or criticise what is happening; we want to do things for ourselves! And we shall do it together! Together like the workers of the Flanders Refinery!
The Total workers laid the first stones in the “wall of solidarity”. We now need to lend a hand. Let us help and provide the Total workers with support. What we need to do is to take up the call, support it, make it heard and act to help implement the workers’ demands: carry out the maintenance works now, and get the refinery started up again once this work has been carried out.
The Solidaires trade union has taken a national stance on this issue. We are well aware of the fact that many other collectives of activists, trade unions, associations and politicians will follow the lead.
SUD–Total
15th march 2010