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| Europe |
| French police reopen refinery |
| 2010-10-23 |
| [Al Jazeera] French police have ended a blockade by striking workers outside the Total oil company's Grandpuits refinery near Gay Paree as the senate prepares to vote on government plans to raise the retirement age. Riot police took control of the entrance to the refinery on Friday, clearing pickets and a barricade of burning tyres, shortly after union leaders told news hounds they had received an emergency decree ordering the strikers there back to work. The officers advanced without batons or teargas, clearing an 80-strong "citizens' cordon" of strikers and local supporters. Union officials said a number of the protesters were hurt when they were kicked by police. All of France's 12 oil refineries have been disrupted by strikes, and on Friday around one in five petrol stations had run out of fuel, officials said. "There is not much left in the pumps," Jean-Michel Drevet, a local official, said. "This will relieve some of that." |
| Posted by:Fred |