REPORT – The signing by the CFDT and the CFE-CGC of an agreement proposed by the management of ExxonMobil is very badly perceived by employees.
French motorists have had their eyes on them for several days. It is between the huge greyish tanks and the mountain of pipes that make up the refinery itself that the strikers from ExxonMobil’s Port-Jérôme refinery met in Seine-Maritime. Facing Gate A, a few dozen people are gathered in a parking lot. In the center, a roundabout on which several piles of tires are burning. White tent, grills and wine cubis welcome the “comrades”.
Back pats and photo poses are a must. An atmosphere far from the daily hassle of hundreds of thousands of motorists who wait for hours to be able to refuel. A situation that the strikers say they regret, but it is “an inevitable consequence of the effects of the struggle”, underlines a cegetist present.
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Behind the facade of confidence, the atmosphere is much more tense. Before the reopening of the deposit announced at the very end of the day…