Electricians and gas workers are mobilized this Thursday for the fifth national day of protest against the pension reform. This is also the case for air traffic controllers and prison guards. Participation in strikes is down, especially at the SNCF, the intersyndicale mainly targeting the day of March 7 to “put France to a halt”.
Some confederations such as the Union Syndicale Solidaires want to launch a movement that can be extended from this date. The unions of the RATP have already announced it, as well as the CGT-Cheminots, the first union of the SNCF. The garbage collectors are also called by their CGT federation to go on strike renewable from this date.
In transport, it is above all air transport that is affected
Unlike previous strike days, the disruptions are greater in the air sector, with flight cancellations and delays, than in the rail sector, due in particular to the strike call apparently better followed by air traffic controllers on Thursday than during previous days of mobilization.
Tuesday evening, the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) had asked companies to preemptively give up 30% of their flights Thursday at Paris-Orly airport, while only 20% of flights had been canceled during previous mobilization days. Other airports are affected such as those of Toulouse, Montpellier, Marseille and Nantes.
The DGAC indicates that the minimum service could be lifted in the air navigation centers of Bordeaux and Reims, but it remains in force in Orly, Nantes, Basel, Toulouse, Marseille and Clermont-Ferrand, thus affecting flights in the corridors air from these areas.
Some flights are experiencing delays “of one to two hours” said the DGAC. In land transport, the rate of strikers is down sharply at the SNCF, standing at 14% according to a union source, against 25% last Tuesday, 36.5% on January 31, and 46.3% on January 19. , the first day of mobilization against the reform. In detail, there are 36% of strikers among drivers, 20% among controllers or 13.5% among switchers, according to figures at midday.
On average, 4 out of 5 TGVs and 1 out of 2 TERs are in circulation today. In the Paris region, traffic is disrupted on the regional lines (RER and Transilien), in particular on the RER B and D, where there is only one train out of two, as on the K, N and R lines of the Transilien.
The equivalent of three cut nuclear reactors
In the energy sector, EDF’s nuclear reactors at Saint-Alban 2 (Isère), Paluel 2 (Seine maritime), Tricastin 1 (Drôme), Flamanville 2 (Manche), Gravelines 5 (Nord) and the thermal Martigues carried out load reductions in total of just over 3,000 MW, the equivalent of three nuclear reactors, overnight from Wednesday to Thursday according to the CGT and EDF. These cuts in production, closely supervised by the manager of the high and very high voltage line network RTE, did not cause cuts for customers.
Wednesday afternoon, many hydroelectric plants went on strike, including the most powerful in France, in Grand’Maison (Isère), making unavailable in total throughout the territory up to 4,000 MW, according to the CGT. The action continued Thursday at Grand’Maison.
On the gas side, eight storage sites of Storengy, a subsidiary of Engie are the scene of filter dams, in particular the very large storage of Gournay-sur-Aronde (Oise), which serves Hauts-de-France. The strikers deny access to the site to companies and service providers in charge of maintenance operations. The Orano Malvési uranium conversion plant, located in the town of Narbonne (Aude) has been shut down since Wednesday evening and should not resume its activity until Friday morning, according to the same source.
At TotalEnergies, only the La Mède bio-refinery (Bouches-du-Rhône) is on strike, resulting in a suspension of fuel shipments from the refinery to depots.
A decline in the movement among teachers, prisons mobilized
Almost twice as many teachers are on strike Thursday, compared to February 7, according to the Ministry of Education, with 7.67% of strikers, a rate calculated for the only regions which are not yet on vacation, in zone C (academies of Paris, Créteil, Versailles, Montpellier and Toulouse), the others being during school holidays. Tuesday, February 7, the ministry had counted 14.17% of striking teachers.
In Paris, which is not on vacation, a few high schools were blocked Thursday morning, such as Janson-de-Sailly (16th) or Lamartine (9th), under the slogan “you put us 64, we re-May 68. »
University sites were closed on Wednesday in Rennes, Nantes and Paris (Tolbiac-Université Paris 1) due to blockages by students or possible occupations. In Paris, four other Paris 1 sites are closed, including that of the Sorbonne and the Pantheon.
FO justice also claims walkouts Thursday in prisons in Perpignan, Bastia, Grasse, Orléans and Saint-Maur.