The strike in a majority of the country’s refineries
continues this Thursday: at Esso-ExxonMobil in Normandy, the movement was renewed this Thursday afternoon, while site employees are requisitioned. But the movement is lifted at the Esso-ExxonMobil refinery in Fos-sur-Mer. At the house of TotalEnergies, the strike is also renewed on all the sites affected. The government has launched the requisition of personnel from the TotalEnergies depot located near Dunkirk. Total has been negotiating with the unions since 8 p.m.
The essential
The situation on the strike and requisition front
The strike lifted at the Esso-ExxonMobil refinery in Fos-sur-Mer
The strike is lifted at the Esso-ExxonMobil refinery in Fos-sur-Mer
, in the Bouches-du-Rhône, announced the CGT and the management. A few days ago, an agreement was signed between management and two majority unions. “There is a lifting of the movement in Fos-sur-Mer” voted by the employees after the 1 p.m. shift, explained Christophe Aubert, central CGT union representative, while the management said it was “satisfied that this movement is over”.
The strike renewed on all the sites of TotalEnergies affected by the movement
The employees of TotalEnergies renewed, this Thursday afternoon, the strike in all the sites involved in the movement. “The movement is renewed everywhere, with always very high rates of strikers”said Thierry Defresne, CGT secretary of the TotalEnergies Europe committee.
He calls on management to open “today” negotiations, otherwise “It’s going to be very hot tomorrow (Friday) in Flanders”the fuel depot near Dunkirk where strikers were requisitioned.
The government launches the requisition of the TotalEnergies depot in Mardyck, near Dunkirk
The government announced on Thursday the requisition of the d
TotalEnergies depot located in Mardyck, near D
unkerque.
The Prefect of the North signed a personnel requisition order of the deposit. Six employees on strike were visited by gendarmes at their homes, this Thursday morning, according to Clément Mortier, CGT delegate of the site. The police notified them of the requisition order issued by the prefect. “We are scandalized on the form”, commented the CGT delegate. These requisitioned employees returned to work from 2 p.m., for a period of 12 hours. Fuel trucks left the depot shortly after 4:00 p.m. The Flanders depot, which supplies almost half of Hauts-de-France, has not delivered fuel since September 26, causing significant supply difficulties since the beginning of October in the region. The Hauts-de-France prefecture estimates that at least half of the service stations there are unavailable.
Four employees requisitioned at ExxonMobil in Seine-Maritime, the CGT denounces a questioning of the right to strike
The strike was renewed in the afternoon at the depot of fuels from the Esso-ExxonMobil refinery of Port-Jérôme/Notre-Dame-de-Gravenchon, in Seine-Maritime. On Wednesday, the government had launched the requisition on four depot employees. They were ordered to reopen the floodgates. “The pumping was able to start and the fuel was injected into the pipeline intended to supply Ile-de-France”said the prefecture of Seine-Maritime.
A “scandalous decision”protested Philippe Martinez, the leader of the CGT, came to support the employees of the site. He announced the filing of an injunction, this Thursday, to oppose these requisitions. “It’s more than a forced passage, it’s a questioning of the right to strike” denounced the union leader on France Bleu Normandie this Thursday.
Negotiations at TotalEnergies
Total invites the unions to negotiate this Thursday evening
For the first time since the start of the strike, TotalEnergies has invited the four representative trade union organizations (CFE-CGC, CGT, CFDT, CAT) to participate in “collective wage negotiations” this Thursday evening, at 8 p.m. “We will be there to negotiate until the end of the night if necessary”declared Isabelle Montaudon, negotiator for the CFE-CGC, on arriving after dark in the business district of La Défense. “Finally the management sits down to eat!” exclaimed Thierry Defresne, of the CGT, whom the management refused until Wednesday to meet without prior lifting of the blockages in its refineries and its fuel depots.
The oil group, under pressure from the government, announced wage concessions Thursday morning, but without convincing the strikers who renewed their movement.
“Total must increase wages”, says Bruno Le Maire
The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire affirmed, on RTL
that TotalEnergies owed “increase wages”. “I’ve been saying for months that all companies that can must raise wages,” he recalled. “It is obvious that Total has the ability to make wage increases,” he said. “Obviously Total must increase wages, Total has the means to increase wages, profit-sharing and profit-sharing, they have the capacity and therefore the duty to increase wages”, hammered the minister, who refers to the negotiations between the management and the unions of the group_. _
Total offers a bonus of one month’s salary to all its employees, and a 6% increase in 2023
In a press release, TotalEnergies announced that it intended to distribute “to all of its employees worldwide” a bonus equivalent to one month’s salary. This “exceptional bonus” will be paid in December, “subject to wage agreements” in the countries and subsidiaries concerned and will be “capped for high salaries”, says the group.
TotalEnergies has also stated that it is proposing an increase of 6% in 2023, based on 2022 inflation, to French employees.
Nevertheless, for Total, “the conditions are not met to organize the negotiation between all the representative organizations, the CGT having decided to maintain the blockages”says the group.
Total’s proposals, “communication” for the CGT
“That’s called communication”commented the secretary general of the CGT Philippe Martinez this Thursday on BFMTV, after the announcements of TotalEnergies. “A negotiation is not an announcement from the CEO or the HR director. We sit around the table, because there is a problem, we discuss and we find a solution”, he castigated, recalling that the strikers are asking for a 10% salary increase.
The situation at gas stations
A third of service stations lack at least one fuel
In the meantime, the shortages continue, and put the nerves of motorists on edge. This Thursday at 5 p.m., 29.1% of service stations in France lacked one or more fuels compared to 30.8% on Wednesday, according to the Ministry of Energy Transition. A ratio higher in Hauts-de-France, Île-de-France and Centre-Val-de-Loire.
The government decided to extend the authorization of tanker trucks to circulate this weekend, said Clément Beaune, Minister Delegate for Transport in a press release on Thursday. It is about allowing “road transport to meet the needs of ensuring the best fuel supply”. An order has been issued for the lifting of fuel transport traffic bans for this weekend, in order to give all the flexibility necessary to ensure the transport of fuel and to supply the distribution networks and the tanks. Another decree relating to the flexibility of daily, weekly and bi-weekly driving times, for a period of one week, has been issued. The prefect are called, by the government, “to pay particular attention to the supply of fuels to transport professionals, who are strategic for the functioning of our country and our economy.”
© Visactu
The situation in refineries
Five out of eight refineries on strike in France
Of the eight refineries and biorefineries in mainland France, five sites are totally or partially affected by the strike movement. The strike is renewed at TotalEnergies on all the sites affected by the movement.
The sites affected by the strike action for TotalEnergies (four out of five in France):
- Donges (Loire-Atlantique) who joined the movement on Wednesday morning.
- Gonfreville-L’Orcher (near Le Havre, in Seine-Maritime)
- Feyzin (south of Lyon, in the Rhône), which is shut down due to a technical accident, insists TotalEnergies, not because of the strike, even if the strategic shipping department is badly affected by the strike.
- La Mède (near Marseille, in the Bouches-du-Rhône) which is a biorefinery, which does not produce fuel, but which is also affected by the strike movement.
One out of two sites Esso-ExxonMobil locations is still affected by the strike movement, while the strike is lifted at the Fos-sur-Mer refinery in the Bouches-du-Rhône.
- Notre-Dame-de-Gravenchon (in Seine-Maritime)
The Grandpuits biorefinery (TotalEnergies group), in Seine-et-Marne, and Lavéra (PetroIneos group), near Martigues, in the Bouches-du-Rhône, are not taking part in the social movement. There is a 9th French refinery, Société anonyme de la raffinerie des Antilles, in Martinique.