While the government of Elisabeth Borne has decided to dispense with the vote of the National Assembly to adopt the pension reform, the unions are preparing to harden their movement in the energy sector.
The CGT affirms that it will stop the Normandy refinery of TotalEnergies during the weekend, “Monday at the latest”. This Friday, the refinery continued to operate at reduced flow. No decision has, for the moment, been taken in the other French refineries.
In recent days, the unions have pushed for production to be cut at the various oil sites, but the employees were reluctant to implement a long and delicate process. It takes several days to restart a site of this size, once it is down. This week, some shipments had taken place, relieving some pressure on stocks. But they are again at a standstill since the announcement of the use of 49.3 by the government.
blockages in the gas
At TotalEnergies, management announced 40% of strikers this Friday morning, on the operators of the first quarter. The figure is stable over the week but has fallen slightly compared to the mobilization of last week, which exceeded 50%.
In the production of electricity, the CGT claims “a record of 17 to 20,000 MW” of production prevented by strikes in the various hydraulic, gas or nuclear power stations.
“This threshold has been held for nine days and it is historic”, argues Fabrice Coudour, federal secretary of the CGT-FNME, the National Federation of Mines and Energy, who explains that the union has acted on the continuation of the mobilization. . “General assemblies took place last night, extending certain strikes until Tuesday or Wednesday. We are going to strengthen the pickets, especially in the gas sector, ”explains the latter.
This Friday morning at EDF, the drop in production linked to the strikers was 8,170 MW, against 8,760 MW this Thursday.
The blockages also concern three of the four French LNG terminals responsible for receiving deliveries of liquefied natural gas, those operated by Elengy, a subsidiary of Engie. That of Dunkirk has resumed its activity.
The gas storage centers of Storengy, another subsidiary of Engie, strategic to spend next winter, are also affected. “This has no impact on deliveries, we continue to supply our customers”, assures Storengy. Finally, strikes also paralyze the activity of waste incinerators.