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The Northern Manufacturing, Energy and Environmental Activities Workers Union (SITE) of the North describes the announcement of the closure of the refinery in Petrogal, in Matosinhos, as “catastrophic news”, comparing it to “shock therapy”.
Speaking to JN, Telmo Silva, director of SITE – Norte and a member of the Workers Committee of the Petrogal refinery in Matosinhos, describes Galp’s announcement, “presented without thinking or prior notice”, as a kind of “shock therapy “. since, he assures, “there was never, on the part of the company, an indication that this could happen”.
The unionist also affirms that, during a meeting with the Minister of the Environment, João Pedro Matos Fernandes, about five months ago, the doubts of the workers “were reassured” by the government official, who will have guaranteed “the maintenance” of refinery.
Faced with a “dramatic scenario”, Telmo Silva warns of the collective dismissal of between 700 and 1,000 workersas well as the impact it will have on their families. The union also accuses the company of “taking advantage of the situation” of the covid-19 pandemic to accelerate a process that, Telmo reinforces, “never communicated anything to the union structures” about a possible closure.
“A lot of passivity”
The member of the Petrogal Workers’ Committee sees the situation as the beginning of the “complete deindustrialization of the north of the country”, foreseeing great losses for the national economy. The situation of the Petrogal refinery, which, he says, “is one of the largest industrial centers in the country,” is being viewed with “a lot of passivity,” he criticizes.
The emergency meetings with the company and the workers, which will be convened by SITE-Norte, as well as the programming of protests will continue.
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