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2 October, 2006
On the five-year anniversary of the Toulouse, France, chemicals explosion at the AZF plant, ICEM affiliate FCE-CFDT has called on French energy company, Total, to explain the reasons why it disagrees with reports by multiple experts on the cause of the blast.
On 21 September 2001, one of the worst industrial explosions in France occurred in Toulouse, killing 29 workers and injuring 2,442 others. The nitrogen fertiliser and chemical intermediates facility was then owned by TotalFinaElf.
FCE-CFDT said that the conclusive and final expertise reports state that it was an accident that could have been prevented had the proper safeguards been in place. “Total, for its part, does not agree with the conclusions of the expert magistrates. It is, for that reason that FCE-CFDT insists that the management of Total come out with its own explanation on why the tragedy occurred.”
The union’s statement added that the experts’ reports bring pressure both on not only the société Grande Paroisse, Total’s chemicals and fertilisers business, but also on senior Total management itself to explain its contradictions. “For the truth to come out is the best way to honour the victims of the tragedy. Without the real reasons, society cannot learn the lessons needed to avoid such future industrial accidents,” stated the union.
Many of the workers killed or injured in southern France on that fateful day were members of FCE-CFDT, or ICEM affiliate Fédéchimie CGT-FO.