Fuel strike news causes panic buying

Long tailbacks formed outside petrol stations yesterday morning and afternoon, clogging major traffic arteries as the news of industrial action at Enemalta's fuel storage plants spread like wildfire.

Readers called to say that traffic was stuck even in side roads, where drivers could not even make out the end of the line. Drivers with no intention of stopping at the stations also got stuck in traffic in main single-lane roads.

But after the rush to get vehicles topped up amid fears of being stranded at home over the weekend, the directive was lifted when the General Workers' Union and Enemalta agreed to meet late yesterday afternoon in a bid to solve the impasse in their dispute over Enemalta's aviation section.

The industrial action had been ordered by the GWU as part of a series of measures taken in reaction to Enemalta's decision to suspend workers at the aviation section following a directive issued earlier this week.

On Wednesday evening, Enemalta decided to close down its aircraft refuelling service at the airport after it was advised that the GWU directive, for workers not to fill in papers with the amount of aviation fuel pumped into an aircraft, was deemed a threat to safety by international aviation standards.

Rumours of an impending "fuel strike" had started doing the rounds as early as Thursday morning but action was only officially announced yesterday morning. The GWU directed Enemalta's employees not to operate the valves used to pump fuel into distribution trucks contracted to carry fuel to the stations.

Enemalta said in the afternoon it was taking measures to ensure that adequate stocks of petrol and diesel for the weekend would be supplied to stations, even if the GWU directive were not lifted.

In fact, the corporation said a number of employees from another section were sent to the Birzebbuga storage plant "to operate the valves so that fuel may be pumped into distribution trucks". The trucks are driven by private contractors.

The IT and Investments Ministry announced that the Association of Small and Medium Enterprise - GRTU, which represents petrol station owners, agreed that stations would remain open till the night. This, it said, would give time to fuel distributors to supply "an adequate stock of fuel for the weekend".