The gasoline shortage continues in France. While the CGT has announced to extend its strike movement until tomorrow, will the situation at the pump relax? La Dépêche du Midi takes stock this Monday.
Despite a majority agreement on wages signed in the TotalEnergies group, the blocking of refineries and depots continues this Monday, October 17. The consequences on many sectors of activity remain significant.
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DIRECT. Gasoline shortage: the situation worsens this Monday, 30.1% of service stations still in difficulty
Continuation of the CGT movement
Despite an agreement on wage increases concluded overnight from Thursday to Friday with two majority unions, the CFDT and the CFE-CGC, the CGT continues to demand 10% corresponding to “inflation plus sharing” of the profits made by the oil company, namely 5.7 billion dollars for the second quarter alone (5.8 billion euros).
The union intends to continue the movement until Tuesday, October 18, a day of interprofessional “mobilization and strike” to which FO, Solidaires and the FSU have also called.
Three refineries shut down
Currently, the strikes concern three refineries (out of seven) and five large depots (out of approximately 200) and are more or less followed depending on the sites, indicates the government. These are the TotalEnergies sites in Normandy (refinery and depot), Donges (refinery and depot), La Mède (biorefinery and depot), Flandres (depot) and Feyzin (depot; the refinery being shut down for technical reasons) .
In Fos-sur-Mer and Le Havre, the cessation of all shipments of unrefined oil to refineries was decided by the CGT, indicating that it had taken this decision in connection with the “provocation of requisitions” imposed in refineries .
Improvement at the pump?
In total, 30.1% of stations were considered “in difficulty” on Sunday against 27.3% of service stations on Saturday, that is to say affected by the rupture of at least one of their products, according to the government. , a slight improvement compared to the previous day (28.5%). In the Ile-de-France region, this rate was much higher: 39.9% and up nearly three percentage points.
In Seine-et-Marne, where 84 out of 177 stations report having difficulty with at least one fuel, the prefecture reports a “trend towards improvement compared to the start of the week” and has taken “special measures to supply for farmers who are in the harvest period, in particular beetroot, but also (to) allow barley to be sown”.
Two decrees issued by the government
Faced with this “exceptional situation”, the government has issued two decrees extending until November 15 the use of diesel and SP95-E10 premium fuel of “summer quality”, instead of “winter quality” which is generally applicable to from 1 November at service stations. Objective: “To be able to use fuel stocks more easily, which would have been unsold because of the strikes”, indicated to AFP the Ministry of Energy Transition.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne also announced the extension of the rebate of 30 cents at the state pump “until mid-November”, assuring that Total would “also” extend its rebate of 20 cents.
March against dear life
At the same time, on Sunday, a march against “high cost of living and climate inaction”, at the call of the Nupes, brought together nearly 30,000 participants according to the authorities and 140,000 according to the organizers.