Shell Rotterdam refinery will go on strike

Strike will hit Shell Rotterdam refinery from Monday 31st of Oct onwards

ROTTERDAM – Labor unions FNV, VHP-Shell, De Unie and CNV will shut down all refineries of Royal Dutch Shell in the Netherlands which are mainly located in the Rotterdam Pernis and Moerdijk areas.

The energy company will not give in to demands of the unions to withdraw a new pension plan. “As of Monday evening 6pm, production will be phased out. That will mean only minimal production after a week”, a spokesperson of FNV declares.
The unions already announced actions earlier this week if the management of Shell would not withdraw the proposal for a new pension plan, which will impact 9,000 Shell employees and 1,800 NAM employees. (NAM is a joint venture of Shell, Esso and the Dutch govenment, it operates the Natural Gas fields in the North Sea).

For the first time in years, Shell wants its employees to pay a pension contribution. Until now, the pension contribution was fully paid by Shell. The company also wants its employees to retire on or after the age of 60.

The unions see no reason to cut down on expenses, because of the healthy financial situation of the Shell Pension Fund. Shell denies there is a expense cut, and speaks about a ‘future cost control’

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Note: the above text is a translation of the first article in the first link. Unfortunately I have not been able to find a news article in English for you yet.

I think this news is relevant for your site, since the Shell Rotterdam refinery processes about 400,000 barrels of oil a day, and we all know there is a worldwide shortage of refining capacity.

Feel free to correct and improve my translation.

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