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The agents of the French nuclear fleet are called to a national day of strike Thursday, October 6, 2022 by an inter-union CGT-CFE-CGC / Unsa, CFDT.
It is a day of negotiation for the representatives of the employees with the employers of the branch of the electricity and gas industries. Like many other sectors of activity, they are calling for an increase in wages taking account of inflation. The showdown has been going on since last summer. It resulted in a 1.3% increase in salaries in 2022. But the CGT is calling for an evolution of this salary at the level of sliding inflation.
Economic consequences
If this movement is without consequence for the public, it risks on the other hand to have economic consequences for the companies, Explain Fabrice Coudour, Federal Secretary of the National Federation of Mines and Energy (FNME) of the CGT: « Employees who stop their activity are plants that cannot restart, the plants cannot be qualified following the various checks or following the corrective action on stress corrosion. So, it is a strong pressure in the face of the political commitments made by the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne to restart. It is also a strong economic pressure since who says no restart, says no production of megawatts of electricity, therefore no money that goes into the coffers of the company. So, for our employers, it’s really a pressure that multiplies and that snowballs from one power station to another, then even towards the production of hydroelectricity, towards the production of thermal flame, historical thermal. It’s really a pressure that sets in. But, we hope that our employers will once again not turn a deaf ear, and will meet the expectations of the field”.
Draw attention
The unions are thus attracting the attention of their employers and representatives of the State at a time when France is launching an all-out energy sobriety plan to face the winter: “ They cannot both demand that agents work hard to ensure the passage of winter and, at the same time, despise them by refusing to compensate for the inflation they are experiencing! », emphasize the trade unions in a leaflet.
This Thursday, October 6, is indeed the day chosen by the French government to present the measures planned to ease the pressure on households and businesses due to soaring energy prices. Objective: reduce France’s energy consumption by 10% in two years, and face winter without cutting off gas or electricity.
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