a complaint filed by TotalEnergies, an extraordinary CSE demanded by the CGT

Around 60 Extinction Rebellion activists entered the refinery site on Saturday. TotalEnergies has filed a complaint but the unions are demanding accountability from management.

TotalEnergies management filed a complaint after the intrusion, on Saturday March 23, of around sixty Extinction Rebellion activists on the site of the TotalEnergies refinery in Donges (Loire-Atlantique), France Bleu Loire Océan reported on Monday. Disguised as clowns to denounce “clowning” of the oil giant, the activists invested the refinery for a little less than an hour, before being escorted towards the exit by the gendarmes and security agents.

Unions challenge management

This intrusion on a Seveso classified site “calls out on the security side”, according to Marin Guillotin of the Force Ouvrière union. While France’s Vigipirate plan has been put into “emergency attack” status since Sunday, he wonders: “Where did they go ? Can this happen again ? And if they were people with bad intentions, what could happen? ?”.

The trade unionist asks the question “of complicity” inside the refinery, “because we know that the place where they passed is one of the weakest in terms of security”. “A person with bad intentions, who could have been fired” was able, according to Marin Guillotin, to seek “to provide information to associations seeking action”.

The CFDT, for its part, asked the refinery management to hold an Extraordinary Social and Economic Committee (CSE) on this intrusion. It will be held Thursday afternoon.

The question of securing Seveso sites

The Donge association of risk zones (ADZRP) recalls for its part that the refinery has been closed since the end of February and a formal notice from the State due to risks of leaks and defects in fire safety. The factory is due to reopen at the beginning of April after work. But for Marie-Aline Le Clerc, from ADZRP, Extinction Rebellion activists “wanted to prove that Seveso sites are not as secure as people say. They proved it”. “This joins our local fight with an industrialist who continues to pollute, to not respect safety rules, to endanger his employees and the population”adds Marie-Aline Le Clerc.

Contacted by France Bleu Loire Océan, TotalEnergies management refused any interview or comment, because “it is a question of the security of the site”, according to the communications department.