The strike at TotalEnergies continues on Saturday in the refineries, for lack of agreement on wage increases with the CGT, and with still significant consequences on many sectors of activity affected by the fuel shortage.
The strike had already been renewed on two sites, until Tuesday for the Normandy refinery located near Le Havre, the largest in France, and Wednesday for that of Donges (Loire-Atlantique).
“The movement has been renewed in the three establishments” de la Mède (bio-refinery in the Bouches-du-Rhône), Feyzin (refinery in the Rhône) and Flanders (North), said Saturday morning Eric Sellini, CGT coordinator for the group, without giving more details.
“The bundles of information that I receive from right to left, there is no problem, it lasts until Tuesday”Thierry Defresne, CGT secretary of the TotalEnergies Europe committee, said on Friday. “Here in Flanders, it’s the requisitions that affect the morale of the strikers. If there are no requisitions this weekend, that should help us get through the weekend”he added.
The administrative court of Lille on Friday rejected the appeal for interim relief filed by the CGT which contested the legality of the requisition by the prefecture of striking personnel in this fuel depot.
Several sites intend to continue the movement until they join the interprofessional “mobilization and strike” day on Tuesday to which the CGT, FO, Solidaires and the FSU have called.
In this perspective, calls for a “general strike” have been launched, particularly in transport (SNCF, RATP, dockers) and in the public service.
Brain teaser
The strike on the sites of TotalEnergies is maintained despite the signing of an agreement on wage increases concluded overnight from Thursday to Friday at TotalEnergies with two majority unions, the CFDT and the CFE-CGC.
But the CGT slammed the door of the discussions, not satisfied with the management’s proposal.
These were the first negotiations since the start of the strike on September 27.
On the other hand, the strike was lifted successively Thursday and Friday in the only two refineries of the Esso-ExxonMobil group in France, in Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône) then in Gravenchon, in Normandy, after the conclusion of a pay deal on Tuesday.
But it will take “two to three weeks” to find a “normal running situation” at the level of the production of the refinery, completely blocked during the movement, warned the group.
For its part, the government has remained on the line mentioned this week by the President of the Republic, with a “back to normal for motorists expected in the coming week”according to Matignon on Friday evening.
But the opposition accuses the executive of having badly managed this crisis and of being too optimistic.
In the meantime, fuel shortages are a headache for many professions, including farmers.