Around 80 workers from the Coryton oil refinery, their families and supporting trade unionists including representation from Essex FBU protested at the Vopak terminal at the weekend.

Workers are angry that Vopak, Shell and Greenenergy have bought and converted the site to an import terminal offering just 50 jobs, a fraction of the 850 jobs being lost.

Unite national officer  Linda McCulloch slammed the Government’s unwillingness to save jobs in the region and Unite are calling for a public inquiry:

“There are some major questions to answer over the sale of Coryton. We know there were serious bidders to keep the refinery going, but have yet to get satisfactory answers as to why they failed. Our fear is that Vopak, Shell and Greenergy were waiting in the wings and that it was a done deal for some time.”

Coryton workers will continue campaigning to save the refinery.