Opponents of pension reform have not finished expressing their anger. While waiting for the new day of national, interprofessional and inter-union mobilization next Tuesday, the energy sector – from power plants, to refineries, via ports and docks – was affected by a strike by employees on Thursday. Result: new drops in electricity production were recorded overnight.
These reductions, strictly supervised by the manager of the RTE high voltage lines, normally have no effect for the general public and above all affect the company’s finances. The action at the Paluel plant, which affected units (production units) 3 and 4 of the plant, caused a drop in production of some 940 MWh and seemed to be over in the early morning, according to messages posted on the site. EDF Internet.
Renewable strike
TotalEnergies employees, who had given two days’ notice, finally suspended their movement on Thursday evening, in order to preserve themselves and prepare the ground for the day of the 31st which will affect all sectors: schools, civil servants, transport, services… , at the call of all the unions. One of them, the UNSA, has identified more than 200 gathering places, as many as for the day of the 19th.
Electricity and gas agents are on strike for their part and could carry out new actions on Friday. On Thursday, in addition to reductions in electricity production and filter dams at the entrance to certain power stations, they carried out a host of actions called “Robin Hood” according to the CGT, to “intensify the balance of power”.
The National Federation of Ports and Docks of the CGT also reported in a press release a “strong mobilization of workers in almost all French ports, with often 100% strikers and ports completely stopped”.
Free electricity
From Lille to Marseille, everywhere in France, they have “placed free electricity or gas” in schools, public housing and hospitals, granted reduced rates to small businesses, and restored power to users who had been deprived of it. Asked about these operations, carried out in parallel with targeted power cuts, the Minister for Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher was very critical.
“I would say it’s right pocket, left pocket, it’s an initiative which in the end amounts to making the taxpayer pay”, declared the minister on France 2, Friday morning, contesting the “generosity” of the initiative .