Faced with the rumble, the government is annoyed. Elisabeth Borne announced on Tuesday the launch of a “requisition procedure for personnel essential to the operation” of the Esso-ExxonMobil group’s depots, during a session of questions to the government at the National Assembly. The situation is “unbearable” in Ile-de-France and in Hauts-de-France, justified the Prime Minister.
“Social dialogue means moving forward once a majority has emerged. These are not minimum agreements. Management announcements are significant. Therefore, I asked the prefects to initiate, as permitted by law, the procedure for requisitioning the personnel essential to the operation of the depots of this company, ”said Elisabeth Borne in front of the deputies.
Esso has three depots in France, in Toulouse, Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône) and Notre-Dame-de-Gravenchon (Seine-Maritime). The latter two are near the company’s two French refineries.
No requisition for the moment at Total
The Esso-ExxonMobil refineries in Notre-Dame-de-Gravenchon (Seine-Maritime) and Fos-sur-Mer, renewed the strike movement on Tuesday, at the call of FO and the CGT, despite the signature of a wage agreement by two majority organizations at the group level but not at the refineries, said the CGT.
For the TotalEnergies group, the government reserves the right “to act again to unblock the situation”, even if it hopes that the unions “will accept” open negotiations with management. “At Total, the reformist unions called for the opening of negotiations. Management responded positively. I hope that the other representative unions will seize this outstretched hand, because social dialogue is always more fruitful than conflict,” said Elisabeth Borne.
The Prime Minister was responding to a question from LR deputy Éric Ciotti, who had estimated “that France is no longer governed”, denouncing a “contempt” of the executive. The government, under fire from critics while a third of service stations are affected by fuel shortages, had called for the “immediate” unblocking of fuel depots, threatening to “intervene”, but the strikers renewed the movement, both at TotalEnergies and at Esso-ExxonMobil.
“You have to know how to end a strike as soon as satisfaction has been obtained,” said Elisabeth Borne, questioned by the leader of the LFI deputies Mathilde Panot who asked her to “stop (the) anti-striker propaganda because the blockage , it’s you” and to tax the “superprofits”.
The Prime Minister replied “to share this concern” on the “exceptional profits in certain sectors”, referring to the government’s proposals in the draft budget “for companies in the fossil fuel sector”.