The tone is hardening at the CGT. Faced with requisitions drawn by the government to counter the strike in the oil industry, the union is betting on an extension of the movement in favor of wage increases and is preparing to organize an interprofessional strike day on Tuesday, despite the dissatisfaction of a part of the opinion.
Employees of the Esso-ExxonMobil site in Gravenchon-Port-Jérôme (Seine-Maritime) thus renewed the movement on Thursday afternoon. Same decision among the employees of TotalEnergies, announced the CGT. In addition, according to Céline Verzeletti, confederal secretary of the union, “a call for a national day of strike for October 18 will be broadcast during the day”. The text should be published after an inter-union meeting at the end of the afternoon, in which the CGT, FO, Solidaires, FSU and Unsa must participate.
Anticipating this announcement, the FNME-CGT (energy) announced Thursday morning that it “will promote and coordinate the national interprofessional strike at the call of the CGT, on Tuesday, October 18”. The CGT-railway workers had long planned to demonstrate in Paris on Tuesday. The public service and the agri-food sector could also join forces with those of the refiners.
Towards a convergence of struggles?
Sign of convergence to come? Wednesday evening, a rally brought together on the forecourt of the Town Hall activists CGT, FO, Solidaires and many left-wing politicians including Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “The fact of requisitioning, it set fire to the powder”, accused the secretary general of the CGT Philippe Martinez on BFMTV Thursday morning. It was a “detonator”, corroborates Simon Duteil of Solidaires.
Asked Wednesday evening on France 2, the President of the Republic repeated that the State would not hesitate to use this weapon of requisitions to allow the distribution of fuel. Threat carried out Thursday in a TotalEnergies oil depot located near Dunkirk, after the Esso-ExxonMobil depot in Notre-Dame-de-Gravenchon on Wednesday.
Questioned Thursday morning on France Inter, the secretary general of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, condemned these requisitions, which according to him feed an “escalation” in the conflict. However, the CFDT will not join the protesters on Tuesday. “The call to strike, what does it change in the end? It doesn’t change anything,” he said. The CFDT and the CFTC had already distanced themselves from the movement in the refineries this weekend, dissociating themselves from the strikes at TotalEnergies, described as “preventive”.
A public opinion that can change
“We are going to speed up our mobilization process,” says Céline Verzeletti. Many union activists will be like her present at the demonstration “against the high cost of living” organized by Nupes on Sunday, before perhaps the organization of a joint day of left-wing parties and unions later.
Is the CGT not afraid with these strikes and demonstrations of alienating the French, many of whom are overwhelmed with the difficulties of refueling? “Of course when you stand in line for an hour at the gas station you get angry. But the question of the sharing of wealth is in everyone’s head, ”answers Céline Verzeletti.
According to an Elabe poll for BFMTV, a small majority of French people approve of the mobilization of TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil employees (42% approve, 40% disapprove, 18% are indifferent). For political scientist Dominique Andolfatto, the CGT “knows that it splits”. But she “undoubtedly calculates that it is rather positive for her”, in particular “vis-à-vis her base and support”.