Oil Terminal employees have gone on a warning strike and are announcing a general strike starting September 17, demanding a 6.5% pay increase

Oil Terminal employees launched a two-hour warning strike on Thursday, without interrupting operations, and announced that they would begin an indefinite general strike on September 17. The union is seeking a 6.5% wage indexation, effective August 1, 2026.

The labor dispute emerged during negotiations for the new Collective Labor Agreement. According to union representatives, the increase was not granted because a memorandum had not been signed at the Ministry of Energy, a document required to approve wage increases at companies majority-owned by the state.

Nicu Androne, leader of the Oil Terminal Union, said employees had been taking steps since February and that September 17 was the deadline by which they expected the dispute to be resolved. He assigned responsibility to the Ministry of Energy and the Government.

The company’s management asked employees to call off the strike. Director Sorin Ciutureanu warned that the protest could affect Romania’s logistics chain for the supply of petroleum products and announced that efforts to secure approval of the memorandum would continue.

The union action comes after the Constanța Tribunal rejected, on September 9, as inadmissible the company’s request for a ruling that the general strike was unlawful. The decision is not final and may be appealed. Oil Terminal is the country’s largest terminal for the import and export of crude oil and petroleum products, while the Romanian state, through the Ministry of Energy, is the majority shareholder.