Petronor workers have started to mobilize early this Thursday morning. The strike was scheduled for this Thursday by the Works Council and from 8:30 p.m. they started to take place at the BEC fair in Barakaldo, where the company planned to hold an annual meeting.

Dozens of workers have concentrated abroad, many with their working divers, while Petronor receives European funds and destroys jobs, according to a banner in which it was read.

At the subsequent press conference, they denounced the outsourcing of services and the precariousness of new contracts, as the company "prioritizes its benefits" above all: "What the leadership wants is to win the present and build the future, but to take away the voice of the work team and turn its back on the everyday reality of the refinery," they explained. It talks about transformation, but we see nothing but job destruction."

They recalled that Petronor has earned EUR 600 million in the last four years, compared with EUR 470 million in 2022. And yet it has put in place temporary employment regulations. In fact, in Barakaldo's act they have denounced that the team is "slimming" and that the rise of the CPI is not noted in the workers' salaries.

To this strategy of thinning the direction is called "transformation", according to workers' representatives, "but we are seeing that the plant is in an increasingly worse condition, that a few years ago unthinkable situations occur".

Benzene, asbestos...

For example, the existing replacement equipment in the refinery for unexpected interruptions "spend years without repair", which generates risk situations, for example, because there may be contact with the former, although since 2022 the law says that this issue is carcinogenic.

In the case of asbestos, Petronor’s management committed seven years ago to suppressing all the asbestos in the plant by 2024: "But when less than a month is left before the end of the year, lines and equipment containing asbestos still appear," they have denounced from the platform.

A thorough reading of this situation has been carried out, which is also the result of subcontracting policy. With the outsourcing of services, external companies put poorer conditions on the back of the working group to reduce the budget.

Risk in a mass environment

At the press conference they referred to the pending repairs at the plant, which are creating a long queue of tasks: "All of this in a crowded environment --" they said, warning of the risk that can be generated outside the plant.

On the other hand, they have stressed that the lack of evaluation of psychosocial risks excludes many pathologies, which necessarily increases absenteeism.

On 7 November the workers decided at the meeting to take the mobilizations to denounce the general situation of working conditions in Petronor. Please note that they will continue to do so, unless the management "takes into account" the workers: "Otherwise, this company will be no more than a chiringuite to move money from one account to another, without generating benefits for society," they concluded.