The unions had promised to put France on hold, against the pension reform. If it has not yet achieved this through the strike, it is now increasing the actions punches, ahead of the next day of mobilization scheduled for Saturday. Between targeted power cuts, blocking of railway tracks and fuel depots, we take stock of the actions carried out.
Targeted power outages
Agents from the gas and electricity sector cut power to the Stade de France and the Olympic village site in Saint-Denis on Thursday, the CGT union announced. “The action deprived the Olympic village of energy, the district at the commercial area level, data centers and also the Stade de France”, explained the secretary general of the CGT energy.
As of Tuesday, the date of the last day of mobilization, targeted power cuts had been decided in Annonay (Ardèche), stronghold of the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt, Boulogne-sur-Mer (Pas-de-Calais), Neuville-en- Ferrain (Nord) and several other localities in Hauts-de-France, targeting industrial and commercial areas. Households had also been deprived of gas in Charleville-Mézières and Marseille. According to Liberation, the electricity had also been cut Wednesday at the permanence of Gérard Larcher, the president of the Senate, while article 7 of the bill was examined.
Blocked fuel depots
Fuel shipments were still blocked Thursday morning at the exit of several French refineries. The blockages affect the TotalEnergies establishments in La Mède, Donges, the Normandy refinery, Feyzin and Flanders, but not production (except in Donges, which has been shut down for technical reasons). On the Esso-ExxonMobil side, the “strike is also renewed at the Esso refinery in Fos-sur-Mer”, with 70% of strikers, assured Éric Sellini, national elected representative of the CGT-Chemistry. However, the strike ended on Thursday and fuel shipments resumed at the Esso-ExxonMobil refinery in Port-Jérôme-Gravenchon.
Train track blockages
In Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), traffic had to be interrupted for several minutes, Thursday, at the start of the afternoon, at the Saint-Charles station after the irruption on the tracks of several hundred demonstrators from National Education, according to La Provence. “The tracks are busy at Saint-Charles station! The struggle continues ! “wrote on Twitter the former leader of rebellious France, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Blockades in universities and high schools
The student union L’Alternative counted on Thursday morning blockages in around twenty establishments, including the universities of Montpellier, Besançon, Le Havre, Nanterre, Rouen or Grenoble or the institutes of political studies of Bordeaux and Strasbourg or one of the two campuses of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Lyon. As for high schools, the Ministry of Education reported 15 blocked establishments and seven partially, and the La Voix lycéenne union reported 200 blocked high schools.
These mobilizations took place on the occasion of a “day of action and mobilization of youth”, at the initiative of several youth organizations, including student unions (Unef, Alternative and Fage) and La Voix Lycéenne .