Workers lift strike at French biodiesel plants

PARIS (Reuters) - Workers at two plants totaling nearly a third of France's biodiesel production capacity voted to lift a strike on Tuesday after several weeks of protests over work conditions and wages, a spokesman for the plants' operator said.

The strike, which started on October 5 in the Grand-Couronne plant with a capacity of 500,000 tonnes of biodiesel a year, had brought production to a standstill.

The site, which also produces 200,000 tonnes of food oil and crushes up to 1 million tonnes of seeds a year, is operated by oilseed processor Saipol but the biodiesel unit is run by Diester Industrie, by far the EU's largest biodiesel maker.

Both are units of Sofiproteol which is the financial arm of French oilseed growers.

Workers at the 250,000-tonne biodiesel plant of Montoir, also run by Diester Industrie, joined the strike on October 17 in sympathy.

"Production restarted in Grand-Couronne this morning after a deal was reached last night," the spokesman told Reuters.

"In Montoir, they just approved the end of the strike and work should resume tonight," he also said.

There was no significant impact on the company's output despite the length of the strikes as production was redirected to other plants of the group in the country, most of which are in overcapacity, the spokesman said.

In 2010, the company produced 1.6 million tonnes of biodiesel in its seven plants in France, which have a total capacity of 2 million tonnes, he said.

The European biodiesel industry has been suffering from squeezed margins and massive imports and is now threatened by a drop in EU support after some studies suggested making the fuel from food crops could do more harm than good in fighting climate change.

The Grand-Couronne workers had downed tools to protest against a bad working climate after several clashes with management and to request a 2,000 euro ($2,750) bonus.

The spokesman said a deal had been reached in which the company agreed to grant workers a bonus of 500 euros but not to pay striking workers' their wages during the action. ($1 = 0.727 Euros)

(Additional reporting by Ivana Sekularac in Amsterdam)