The strike continues Monday in the refineries and depots of TotalEnergies despite threats of new requisitions at the start of a high-risk week marked by an interprofessional movement on Tuesday and the first departures on vacation on Friday.
“The strike is renewed (on the sites of) Normandy, in Donges, La Mède, Feyzin and in Flanders, despite the requisitions”said Eric Sellini, CGT coordinator for TotalEnergies, bringing the total of sites on strike to three refineries (out of seven) and five large depots (out of around 200).
The fuel shortage did not seem to be abating, the figures released on Sunday evening showing a worsening of the situation for service stations: 30.1% were in difficulty against 27.3% the day before, due to fewer deliveries over the weekend. , according to the government.
“My 91-year-old father couldn’t see himself queuing for an hour,” Virginie confided to AFP on Sunday in a station in the Fives district of Lille, filling up with diesel for her parents.
The situation was also tense in Bourgogne Franche-Comté and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. In Lyon, Serge Almodovar, 56, with an almost empty tank, had spotted an “open” station on a site which turned out to be closed: “I take it with philosophy. Fortunately we are not working today”.
“Today we have a logistics topic”said Monday the Minister of Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher, traveling to the Gennevilliers oil depot, supplied in part by the Esso depot in Port-Jérôme, whose “the pipelines have restarted”, “but now we have to push the fuel to the stations”.
“impact on the economy”
Difficulties in getting to work, concern in rural areas in the midst of harvest and sowing, fear of disruptions in holiday departures and cancellations: the consequences on many sectors of activity are being felt.
Faced with this deadlock after nearly three weeks on strike, the Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire raised his voice on Monday, saying that it was necessary “liberate fuel depots and refineries”.
“The time for negotiation has passed, there has been a negotiation, there has been an agreement, that means that force must remain with the majority vote”he added on BFMTV.
The president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, called on Radio J on Sunday for requisitions, because an additional week of shortage “It could really have an impact on the economy”.
On Monday, the government requisitioned the fuel depot in Feyzin (Rhône) from 2 p.m., after having renewed at 6 a.m. the requisition of the depot in Mardyck (Flanders) near Dunkirk, to supply the service stations of Hauts-de- France, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, the Ministry of Energy Transition said on Monday.
Extended rebate
Currently, the strikes concern three refineries (out of seven) and five large depots (out of approximately 200) and are more or less followed according to the sites of TotalEnergies, according to the government. These are those of Normandy (refinery and depot), Donges (refinery and depot), La Mède (biorefinery and depot), Flandres and Feyzin (depot, the refinery being shut down for technical reasons).
The strike was lifted Thursday and Friday in the only two refineries of the Esso-ExxonMobil group in France, after the conclusion of a wage agreement Tuesday between management and two majority unions, but not with the CGT.
While the strike drastically increased prices at the pump, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced the extension of the 30-cent rebate, assuring that TotalEnergies would “also” extend his discount by 20 cents. State-funded aid was to drop to 10 cents from November 1.
At TotalEnergies, an agreement on wage increases had been concluded overnight from Thursday to Friday with two majority unions, the CFDT and the CFE-CGC. It provides for a “envelope” overall wage increase of 7%, including a 5% increase for workers and technicians and 3.5% for executives, plus an individual share which may differ depending on the person. Added to this is a bonus of one month’s salary, with a floor of 3,000 euros and a ceiling of 6,000 euros.
The CGT demands 10%, corresponding to “inflation plus sharing” profits made by the oil company, namely 5.8 billion euros for the second quarter alone. The union intends to continue the movement until Tuesday, day of “mobilization and strike” interprofessional to which FO, Solidaires and the FSU also called.