A planned strike at TotalEnergies in the Port of Antwerp set for Monday has been cancelled, announced the ABVV Chemie union, the Flemish counterpart of FGTB Chimie, on Sunday.
The company management presented a new proposal following intensive discussions, offering employees an increase in the “CCT90” bonus by €100, raising it to €1,350. The union stated that this proposal will be put to a vote in the coming days, and the strike notice is suspended pending the outcome.
The strike notice was originally submitted in response to TotalEnergies’ decision in late April to shut down a steam cracker, a petrochemical unit that converts hydrocarbons into basic molecules used in the chemical industry, by the end of 2027, citing market overcapacity as the reason.
TotalEnergies assured that there would be no job losses for the 253 affected employees, thanks to internal mobility within the Antwerp site and retirements. The company employs 1,750 people in the Port of Antwerp.
However, unions are skeptical about this promise. Additionally, the rest of the “polymers” division, Total Energies Polymers Antwerpen (TEPA), is set to become a separate entity starting 1 July 2025. TEPA workers are demanding more guarantees, an extension of social agreements, and the application of the same agreements granted to their refinery colleagues, which the management allegedly refuses, according to unions.
TotalEnergies countered these concerns by insisting that the Antwerp polymers plant will remain fully integrated within the refining platform in the long term, ensuring no changes for the TEPA workers.
