the management reaches a compromise with two majority unions, but without the CGT

On the site of the Total Energy refinery, in Gonfreville-l’Orcher (Seine-Maritime), on October 13, 2022. LOU BENOIST / AFP

At the headquarters of TotalEnergies, in La Défense (Hauts-de-Seine), near Paris, Friday, October 14, the night was long. It took no less than 7 hours for the first “collective wage negotiations”, initiated by the management of the major, to lead to a compromise, while the strike has been raging in refineries for eighteen days, and a major fuel shortage. The CGT, at the origin of the strike, did not rally to the agreement unlike the two reputedly reformist unions, which are the CFDT and CFE-CGC. The latter two are the majority, with 56% union representation. The evening before, the management, under pressure from the government to increase its salaries, had hastily summoned four trade unions, including the CGT (28.75% of the vote).

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“The CFDT negotiation team has given a favorable opinion on the measures that are on the table”, announced Geoffrey Caillon, coordinator of the CFDT, At about three o’clock in the morning. “This is a 7% increase in wages, it is a little below the 8% we had hoped for, but we all wanted to find a compromise taking into account the difficult external context that the French are experiencing. », he adds while the measures also provide for a bonus of 3,000 to 6,000 euros. The CFDT will submit the proposal to its union sections, adding that these measures for 2023 will be applicable on November 1, instead of January 1. The CFE-CGC union, too, “rather in favor of signing”, will do the same. The proposal must be signed before this Friday noon.

loaded dice

Conversely, the CGT slammed the door of negotiations around 2 am. The sticking point: a salary increase deemed insufficient. But also the retroactivity of the increase. While the CGT is demanding a 10% increase over the year 2022, the management of the oil giant has refused to go that far. Thursday morning, she had proposed a 6% increase for the year 2023. “This was a major obstacle, emphasizes Eric Sellini, CGT coordinator within the group. If there had been real retroactivity to the 1^is June, or even on 1^is July, that would have made the strikers think seriously, and perhaps even made it possible to lift the movement. »

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With this compromise, TotalEnergies follows in the footsteps of Esso ExxonMobil. Monday, October 10, the French subsidiary of the American group had managed to sign a salary agreement with the CFDT and CFE-CGC, also majority. A scenario which had the effect of accelerating government requisitions on Wednesday October 12, in one of the Esso-ExxonMobil refineries (that of Port-Jérôme-Gravenchon in Seine-Maritime) while in Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches -du-Rhône), another group site, the strike was lifted. The summary filed by the CGT to contest the requisition in Port-Jérôme was rejected Friday morning by the administrative court of Rouen, we learned from a judicial source.

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