Rabat - Former employees of Societe Anonyme Marocaine de l'Industrie du Raffinage (SAMIR) and citizens of Mohammedia will participate in a hunger strikenext Sunday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. to urge the government to re-nationalize the oil refinery from Corral Petroleum Holdings, owned by Saudi businessman Mohammed Al Moudi.
The local committee tasked with taking political and legal action to restart production at (SAMIR), held a meeting about the refinery last Saturday. After the meeting, the committee invited political parties, trade unions, and locals to participate in a march that will take place in Mohammedia next Saturdaybefore the hunger strike scheduled for the next day.
In a press release summarizing a legal path forward to refund and reopen the refinery - which stopped production last August due to “financial constraints” - the committee announced plans to form a team of lawyers to defend the rights of the site’s workers. When Al Moudi fled the kingdom at the end of last August due to his soured relations with the Moroccan government, he left over 950 workers without pay.
“A lawsuit will be filed against all parties that enabled this disaster and caused damage to the workers, the city, and the nation,” the statement read.
“The Moroccan state is responsible for re-nationalizing the company, restarting production at the refinery, and opening an investigation to determine those responsible for this big scandal”
Last October, SAMIR got the backing of its “extraordinary general assembly” to raise MAD 10.4 billion in capital in order restart production. The company had said that as two-thirds shareholder, Al Amoudi would contribute two-thirds of the necessary capital or $675 million to the company byNovember 15th.
The committee’s statement, however, said that the creditors who had promised to contribute to the refinancing deal did not follow through on their commitments.
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