Thursday’s use of Article 49.3 to pass the pension reform revitalized the protest movement. Major disruptions are expected this week in refineries, transport, education and waste collection. The Parisian takes stock.
“Black day” in transport this Thursday
Sud-Rail, CFDT-Cheminots, CGT Cheminots and Unsa-Ferroviaire have called for “maintaining the strike” launched on March 7th. The four unions also encourage SNCF employees to “multiply actions and unitary initiatives from this weekend in all territories”. Traffic on Monday should however be similar to that of this weekend, with 4 TGV Inoui and Ouigo out of 5 on average, 2 TER out of 3, as well as 3 Intercités out of 5 but none at night.
On the Ile-de-France transport side this Monday, it is above all the RER D and the R line which will be affected with only 2 trains out of 5 as well as the line U with 1 train out of 3. The northern part of the RER B – managed by the SNCF – should also be disrupted with 1 out of 2 trains.
3 out of 4 trains are scheduled on RER E and line P while 2 out of 3 trains will run on RER C and lines J, L and N. SNCF indicates that these disruptions should continue this Tuesday. Traffic should be normal on the RATP network. Force Ouvrière, however, announces a “dark day” in the metro this Thursday.
A strike by air traffic controllers will also disrupt air traffic, with 30% of flights canceled at Paris-Orly and 20% at Marseille on Monday, then 20% at the two airports on Tuesday and Wednesday. “Despite these preventive measures, disruptions and delays are nevertheless to be expected”, announces the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) in a press release. It also invites passengers who can to postpone their trip or to contact their airline “to find out the status of their flight”.
Blocking Refineries
The TotalEnergies refinery in Gonfreville-l’Orcher (Seine-Maritime) has already been blocked since Friday evening. The Petroineos refinery in Lavéra (Bouches-du-Rhône) is preparing to be shut down this Monday afternoon. The Esso-ExxonMobil refinery in Port-Jérôme-Gravenchon could experience the same fate.
“The fuel shortage will intensify”, warned this Monday morning, on Franceinfo, Emmanuel Lépine, secretary general of the National Federation of Chemical Industries of the CGT. “No product comes out of any refinery today,” he points out. Since this weekend, the situation has become more and more complicated in certain stations, especially in the south of France.
The movement continues among garbage collectors
Thirteenth day of mobilization among waste collection employees as the requisitions began at the end of the week. Three sites in the Ile-de-France have set up “filtering dams” to allow certain collection trucks to pass. This corresponds to around 80 vehicles per day against 400 in normal times for the incinerator of Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine), according to Liberation.
The strikers “continued the movement until Tuesday inclusive” in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Val-de-Marne) and Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis). Access to the incinerator of Ivry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne) is still blocked.
Strike in education for the baccalaureate specialty tests?
Continuation of the mobilization in education on the initiative of the unions which call for a “strike of the supervisors during the specialty tests of the bac”, which take place from Monday to Wednesday. The Ministry of National Education has already indicated that it will call on “additional supervisors”.
Laurent Berger, secretary general of the CFDT, had called this Sunday in Liberation not to “obstruct the baccalaureate”. Same story on the CGT side, Philippe Martinez indicating that he hopes that the “baccalaureate tests will go as well as possible”.