Information received from the magazine "El Espejo"
On Monday 30 November Shell sacked three workers, one of them a former member of the shop stewards committee, comrade Pedro Dmitrowicz.
The committee requests the circulation of the report reproduced below and solidarity to achieve the reinstatement of those sacked.
Messages of support and solidarity can be sent by e-mail to El Espejo: elespejo@geocities.com
With the slogan "We help to build a better world for everyone", Royal Dutch Shell tries to change its international image. But in Argentina, as well as imposing inhuman rhythms and hours of work, Shell contaminates the water, pollutes the environment, instills terror amongst the workers through the constant reduction of jobs, and hounds delegates who try to organise resistance.
The company's attempt to apply make-up derives from two important blows to its international image: the worldwide outcry against the sinking of an old oil platform in the North Sea and the execution of 9 leaders of the Ogoni people, who opposed its plans for devastation in Nigeria.
The bold militancy of European youth and workers denouncing these acts obliged the oil transnational to shift its strategy to counteract the damage suffered by its corporate image.
A protest action led by environmental organisations, extended throughout Europe, forced Shell to backtrack on its aim of breaking up the Brent Spar platform and sinking it in the North Sea where it had operated for 20 years. In this way, the oceans were spared contamination with hydrocarbons, radioactive elements and heavy metals accumulated in the derrick. The boycott by the European public caused an important fall in Shell sales and was an effective tool which made the world's biggest oil company turn around.
By contrast, the Nigerian military junta tried to silence the resistance of the movement for the survival of the Ogoni people against the multinational oil company, by hanging various of its leaders - among them the writer and Nobel Prize candidate Ken Saro Wiwa. The Ogoni, who inhabit the Niger delta - principal site for Nigerian oil exploitation, where five and a half million people live in the most absolute misery and where Shell contaminates the air and ruins the soil - have resisted the devastation of their lands for many years.
This is not the first time that Shell stands accused of actions which show contempt for nations and human life. From the war of Chaco Boreal between Paraguay and Bolivia at the turn of the century, to the active participation in the overthrow of governments which defend oil nationalisation, through the exposure of Costa Rican banana plantation workers to pesticides containing dibromochloropropane (DBCP), who became sterile and now face higher risks of cancer, depression, alcoholism and suicide.
In Argentina, the profits which remain with the monopolies which refine and sell fuel, have grown four fold in the last seven years. In a market completely deregulated in 1991, the few companies dedicated to the sale of naphtha and gas oil receive a net income of over 200 million dollars per month. The bulk remains with four funds: YPF, Shell, Esso, and Eg3 account for 95% of all the litres consumed in the country; over 8000 million dollars per year. Profits which have multiplied in the last year, maintaining the value of fuel sales for the monopolies despite an over 40% collapse in the price of crude - a product of the world crisis.
During this same period Shell CAPSA reduced the staffing of its refinery in South Dock, from almost 1000 workers to a little over 500 who form the current establishment.
The need to maintain its standard profit rate leads the multinational to launch a fierce offensive on flexibility which involves: Prohibiting the unionisation of drivers and workers on its maritime and terrestrial transport fleets; Disregarding absolutely the popular demand in South Dock and Avellaneda to stop the installation of a coke plant from Holland, where it had been dismantled due to its high environmental impact; not taking any kind of valid measures to eliminate environmental pollution or water contamination; and the ensuing illness and insecurity which the population of the zone have endured for over 80 years; the systematic attack against workers and delegates in the refinery who resist the bosses offensive and do not lie down before their plans to maximize profits at the expense of living and working conditions.
Shell CAPSA is synonymous with authoritarianism, the disregard of labour laws, collective agreements and even the National Constitution. It seeks to instill terror among the workers with permanent reduction in posts, while with the complicity of the national, provincial and municipal authorities, the refinery expands without limit.
In this way a new burden of tasks is generated, a permanent asphyxiating tension which acts to the detriment of safety and the ability to prevent environmental accidents of unforeseeable consequences for the workers and the community.
We are pointing out this situation once again. We demand a real change, if we intend "the construction of a better world" to be more than a bit of make-up to hide the truth.
