After the passage in force to the Assembly, the coup de force with the workers. The Minister of Industry Roland Lescure hinted this Saturday that the government could make requisitions in the event of the shutdown of refineries by employees on strike against the pension reform, like the requisitions of garbage collectors in Paris. At least two refineries, that of PetroIneos in Lavéra (Bouches-du-Rhône) and the Normandy refinery of TotalEnergies in Gonfreville-l’Orcher (Manche), could be shut down from this weekend and later Monday, according to the CGT.
Until now, the strikers had contented themselves with blocking fuel shipments, but the refineries continued to produce. Asked about a risk of fuel shortage, the minister, guest of France Info, replied: “We showed in the fall that we knew how to take our responsibilities there again, we will take them”, in reference to the requisitions then taken for unblock oil sites during wage strikes. He stressed that such measures were “being deployed” with Parisian garbage collectors.
“Today, most gas stations in France and Navarre have gasoline”
“We are not going to leave 65 million French men and women and a country together blocked by a few dozen individuals. So, the strike, (…) it is obviously an inalienable right, but the blocking of some individuals of a country (…), it is not possible”, added the minister. Assuring that “today, most service stations in France and Navarre have gasoline”, Roland Lescure was critical of the leader of the CGT Bouches-du-Rhône Olivier Mateu that he, without naming him, called him an “arsonist firefighter”, who “tries to create panic, anxiety so that people go to get gas and suddenly we find ourselves potentially without”.
The trade unionist, candidate for the succession of Philippe Martinez at the head of the CGT, had advised Monday to “comrades who get up in the morning to go to work” to “stock up, because it will not last forever”, after the on strike at the Fos-sur-Mer and Lavéra oil terminals.