Without creating a shortage at this stage, fuel shipments remained blocked, Wednesday, March 8 in the morning, at the exit of the refineries of the TotalEnergies group in France, in order to protest against the pension reform project, explained to Agence France -Press (AFP) the CGT-Chemistry.
According to Eric Sellini, national elected representative of the CGT-Chimie who called for a renewable strike, “TotalEnergies’ major shipping sites are shut down. The strike was renewed in the establishments of TotalEnergies in La Mède, Donges, the Raffinerie de Normandie, Feyzin and Flandres, with rates of strikers between 70% and 100%”. Mr. Sellini also reports 80% of strikers on the Lavéra (South-East) site of the Petroineos group, a subsidiary of the British Ineos and PetroChina.
On the Esso-ExxonMobil side, he indicates that the Fos-sur-Mer refinery (Bouches-du-Rhône) had 86% of strikers among the morning teams. In that of Port-Jérôme-Gravenchon near Le Havre, the CGT announces 20% of strikers and “no fuel output”.
TotalEnergies ensures that there is no shortage of fuels
“We ask the question [de la reconduction de la grève] every eight hours to employees who arrive, the next deadline is between noon and 2 p.m. The employees are still as motivated to continue the movement, yesterday’s mobilization reinforces the motivation “said Sellini.
In a press release, the FO union of TotalEnergies estimated that “Only the objective of temporarily ‘confiscating’ our production without shipment of product will put additional pressure on this government”pointing out that “the strikers will be able to rely on our strike funds in order to limit financial losses”.
The refineries continue to produce fuel: gasoline and diesel which will have to be stored on site until further notice, for lack of being able to leave. When the on-site reserves are full, the refineries will have to stop, but this would require several days or even weeks of blockages. In the meantime, the 10,000 stations in France are now full and can count on 200 fuel depots.
The management of TotalEnergies assured Tuesday that there was at this stage “no lack of fuel” in its stations, adding that “stocks in depots and service stations are at a high level”.