29.4% of service stations were in difficulty on Monday evening. While France is split in two todaybetween those who cannot do without a car, and those who can postpone their trips to public transport – themselves faced with a lack of drivers -, the Minister of Transport Clément Beaune put pressure, this Tuesday morning on RMC, on the unions and the management of TotalEnergies so that they negotiate. “The essence has not evaporated, it is blocked, it must be unblocked”, he summarizes.
These blockages must be lifted “without delay”, also insisted on RTL the spokesman of the government Olivier Véran, who says he reserves “the possibility of intervening”. “Otherwise we will take our responsibilities, which means that we could have to lift them”, he underlined about these blockages, thus brandishing the threat of requisitions. “You can requisition, unblock, open access to depots and refineries and requisition the right personnel,” he insisted.
“The general interest exceeds the interests of Total and the CGT”
However, Olivier Véran first wants to bet on successful negotiations. “The government will continue to ensure that the conditions of social dialogue are respected”, he said, recalling that the executive was already in the process of “intervening”, in particular by using the “national strategic stocks”. , by making agreements with Belgium and by multiplying “the rotations of tanker trucks”.
“The blocking of the country is not acceptable”, “the general interest exceeds the interests of Total and the CGT”, insisted, on France Info, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire. “Let everyone show responsibility, that the unions accept the outstretched hand and that Total negotiates in good faith”, demanded the minister, hammering that “the timing is in terms of hours”. According to him, “it is necessary that in the hours which come an agreement is reached”, to restore the situation.
Monday, the CGT renewed its movement for Tuesday. Are still concerned two of the three refineries of TotalEnergies and the two French sites of Esso-ExxonMobil, where the movement continued after a meeting with the management qualified as “inconclusive” by Christophe Aubert, central union representative CGT. Hauts-de-France, Île-de-France, but also Normandy and Brittany, where our newspaper encountered professionals concernedare particularly affected.
“We are still awaiting details in terms of negotiations by management”, noted in the morning Eric Sellini, CGT coordinator for TotalEnergies. His union is demanding a 10% wage increase for 2022, the energy giant having made $ 10.6 billion in profit in the first half of 2022, against the 3.5% negotiated at the start of the year. And to warn: in the event of a requisition, “we will go to court to have them canceled”.
Barely returned from Algiers, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne brought together several ministers urgently on Monday evening. “The government cannot let the country be blocked”, commented those around him: “A wage disagreement does not justify blocking the country. To refuse to discuss is to make the French the victims of a lack of dialogue”.
One in three resorts in difficulty
At 6 p.m. Monday, 29.4% of service stations were in difficulty at the national level (compared to 29.7% at 3 p.m. Sunday), said the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher. “If a slight improvement is observed in Hauts-de-France, (…) other difficulties appear on the territory, including in areas which are not affected by the current social movement such as the Atlantic coast”, indicates the ministry in a statement.
At the end of his intervention, Olivier Véran estimated that finding “normal functioning” in the most affected regions would “take a few days”, and assured that “this will be the case within 15 days”. Either before the first departures on vacation for the All Saints holidays.