Shell To Sea Picket at the Shell Station on Finglas Road

by Jim Mon Oct 22, 2007 20:31

Shell do not own any petrol stations in Ireland anymore. An Irish owned company called Topaz now owns and operates these filling stations. Topaz chose to keep the Shell and Statoil branding, they may not even use Shell fuels.

I'm not sure what the point of this picket is? It is simpling reducing the turn over of an irish company and putting low income workers jobs at risk.

This is very irresponsible and does not serve the purpose of a protest against Shell.

by Jacqueline Fallon Mon Oct 22, 2007 22:31

Jim's quote "they may not even use Shell fuels".

Jim, that's definitely not true. Topaz sell all Shell/Statoil products on the island of Ireland in all 32 counties. On 1st November 2006, after a review by the Competition Authority, Statoil was sold to Topaz. Topaz are the main distributor of Shell products and market Shell in Ireland. This petrol station would be in breach of many laws, contract law, passing-off, fraud etc., if the petrol station was deceiving customers by passing-off petrol and other oil products as Shell products, while using an opposing petroleum wholesaler - this petrol station is definitely selling Shell/Statoil products - Topaz would see to this! Shell would emit a very fiery and explosive response, indeed, in the event that the petrol station concerned was passing-off their brand name on products that do not belong to Shell!

No doubt this petrol station signed a Solus Agreement. A Solus Agreement being a common form of agreement entered into between petroleum wholesalers and petrol stations, where the petrol station agrees to take and sell only petrol and oil products from Shell for a specific length of time, usually, for a limit of 10 years. During the ten years the petrol station has no freedom to choose his/her own petroleum wholesaler and cannot at a whim stop selling the oil wholesaler’s products.

I agree with Jim, I believe pickets outside the Shell Headquarters would be more appropriate. Many petrol stations around the country are family run businesses and I think it grossly unfair that these small petrol stations should be targeted - it’s not as if they can stop selling Shell’s products immediately even if they wanted to, they have signed a lengthy contract to sell Shell’s products, they are effectively imprisoned by the terms of the contract/solus agreement they’ve signed with Topaz/Shell.

Picket the Shell Headquarters and Topaz’s head office by all means, but leave the individual petrol stations alone!

by MacE Tue Oct 23, 2007 11:25

These protests are food for thought for anyone thinking of going into or already in business with Shell and Statoil. Until these businesses state explicitly that they will not be renewing their contracts with Topaz unless the Corrib debacle is sorted out, we should continue to protest them.

by T Ruane Tue Oct 23, 2007 15:14

Protests at petrol stations selling Shell and Statoil have an obvious effect- they put pressure on Shell and Statoil to change their ways.

The widespread picketing of Shell stations in Britain and Germany during the protests around the disposal of the Brent Spar in 1995 led to the company changing its plan to dump the oil platform at sea, and forced it to dispose of it in a more environmentally sound way.

It has been argued that the decision to sell the Shell and Statoil forecourt businesses in the 26 counties in 2005 was a result of the picketing of these forecourts during the imprisonment of the Rossport Five. Whatever about Shell, Statoil saw its plans for expansion in Ireland severely hit when people simply stopped applying for franchises from the Norwegian company.

While Topaz now own the forecourts, and have sold many off to make money on their value as development sites, the remainder are still exclusively selling Shell and Statoil products. Those opposed to the behaviour of these companies are free to show their disapproval by boycotting the stations, which will force the garage operators to pressure Shell and Statoil to change their ways, just as those opposed to apartheid in the 1980's put pressure on shopkeepers to stop trading with the then South African regime.

Picketing and leafleting the stations brings the situation home to motorists who may be unlucky enough not be regular readers of indymedia, and gives them information on which to make up their own minds. Why would anyone object to that?

by TimB Tue Oct 23, 2007 18:24

shell chun saile!

by Jacqueline Fallon Tue Oct 23, 2007 18:41

Yes, you are all correct in stating the protests are more visible to the general public from petrol stations and the garages selling Shell/Statoil products will suffer a loss as some people on seeing a protest might be inclined to move to one where there is not a protest and that puts a little dent in Shell's profits, so there's some little advantage for the campaign there.

However, I'm still of the opinion that more protests outside Shell Headquarters and Topaz's Head Office and Leinster House would be better for the campaign than targeting the small petrol station, particularly down the country anyway, where most garages are family run and a protest outside them could turn local opinion against the Shell to Sea protestors. Something inside me is annoyed at the fact that it always seems to me that the relatively small fry, the small Irish petrol station with a substantial mortgage to pay back gets hit the most (considering there's little they can do in the short term considering the lengthy contracts involved) - whilst the multinational Shell can carry on business as usual unscathed from their refinery tower!

Anyway, best of luck to all Shell to Sea Protestors everywhere!

by wage slave Tue Oct 23, 2007 22:25

Jacqueline- there was a protest last week at Shell's Irish headquarters. Couldn't make it?

Perhaps you were at work?

The petrol station in Glasnevin is open at weekends and evenings, allowing us wage slaves to make our presence felt even though we have to also pay our mortgages.

And while you're right to talk about long term contracts- Shell hanged Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others in 1995-
so if you're still dealing with them, it's not because you haven't had time to sort it out.

by Johnny H - CYM Tue Oct 23, 2007 22:41

Spread the word!

by Jacqueline Fallon Tue Oct 23, 2007 22:48

Chuig: Wage Slave

I was out of the country last week, I couldn't make the protest, but I have been at many Shell to Sea protests and have helped out with leafleting, postering and attended public meetings in support of the Rossport men when they were imprisoned and attended many subsequent protests.

Just in case people think I own a Shell petrol station, the idea is laughable to me, considering I have very little money, I don't own a car, I don't own a house, don't have a mortgage (according to the banks, I'm too fucking poor to have one) and I can bearly afford to pay my fucking rent due to an exorbitant increase recently by my greedy landlord!

I don't know why I'm being attacked, I have always supported the Shell to Sea campaign!