DThe refinery strike in France, which has been going on for more than two weeks, is still going on despite a partial agreement. Industrial action continues in all plants of the multi-energy company Total Energies, the French news agency AFP reported on Saturday, referring to the CGT union representative Eric Sellini. Two of Total Energies’ five refineries are said to be on strike until Tuesday and Wednesday.
The politically very left-wing CGT is demanding a wage increase of 10 percent and rejects the agreement negotiated with other unions with Total Energies of 7 percent plus bonus payments. Work has resumed at both Exxon Mobil plants since Friday afternoon. Here, too, workers had gone on strike.
Fuel is scarce at around a third of French petrol stations. Drivers stand in line or spend hours looking for fuel.
Nuclear reactors will come online later
The French energy company EDF has also had to postpone its plans to bring five shut down nuclear reactors back on line because of strikes in the energy sector. “I can confirm that there are industrial action,” said a company spokeswoman for the AFP news agency on Saturday. These could “impact the timeline for restarting at some power plants,” she added. The delay for the reactors in question could be anywhere from a day to three weeks.
France gets 70 percent of its electricity from a total of 56 nuclear reactors, 30 of which are currently offline due to routine maintenance or corrosion problems.
Workers are on strike at several nuclear power plants where reactors have been shut down for maintenance. The strikes are part of a larger wage dispute in the French energy sector. EDF wants to negotiate with the unions on Tuesday.
The company is financially ailing. In view of the high energy prices, the government had obliged EDF to sell more electricity to competitors below the market price than was previously the case, in order to protect consumers from high prices. The company’s debt could rise to 60 billion euros by the end of the year. The French state began nationalizing the energy company at the beginning of October.