The representatives of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) of the oil sites of TotalEnergies on strike for three weeks to obtain wage increases decided, Tuesday evening, October 18, to renew the movement until Wednesday at midday in the group’s refineries and depots currently shut down.
“The conflict will continue at least until Wednesday noon and we will see what will happen next, during the general assemblies” of employees, Wednesday, declared to Agence France-Presse (AFP) the CGT coordinator at the national level, Eric Sellini, Tuesday evening.
Otherwise, following the day of mobilization and strikes, Tuesday, throughout France, “there will also be meetings of all the organizations of the CGT, which will decide if this day calls for others”he added. “Beyond the refiners and the fourteen thousand employees of TotalEnergies, we also carry the voice of those who suffer from the fact that wages do not keep up with inflation and who see winter coming with promises of higher fuel prices. energy or food”he added. “It is at the national level that this question must be dealt with, because we are in a very special situation”added the manager.
Four out of seven refineries on strike in France
The strike action called by the CGT in refineries and depots concerned, on Tuesday evening, the TotalEnergies refineries of Gonfreville-l’Orcher (Seine-Maritime), Donges (Loire-Atlantique) and La Mède (Bouches-du- Rhône), and the deposits of Feyzin (Rhône), whose refinery is closed for technical reasons, and Flanders (North), specified Mr. Sellini.
The CGT did not sign the pay agreement reached on October 14 between the management and two majority unions – the French Confederation of Managers – General Confederation of Managers (CFE-CGC) and the French Democratic Confederation of Labor ( CFDT) –, providing for a general increase of 5% in wages, accompanied by individual increases and an exceptional bonus of between 3,000 and 6,000 euros. The CGT demanded a 10% increase to offset the inflation expected this year and take advantage of the exceptional income earned by the oil group in 2021.
Four refineries in France out of seven were affected by the strike movement, for their refining and/or depot operations. The other three sites in the country, managed by Esso-ExxonMobil and the Petroineos group, are operating. Depots not linked to refineries, such as that of Grandpuits (Seine-et-Marne), being transformed into an agrorefinery, were also on strike.
“Significant improvement” in the stations, according to Elisabeth Borne
According to TotalEnergies, the sites affected by the strike have just over three thousand four hundred people on permanent contracts. The company estimates that around ninety the number of striking employees present on these infrastructures at time T. The employees actually work in shifts and shifts. In Feyzin, the CGT claims a hundred strikers, according to its local representative, Pedro Afonso, for whom “determination is intact”.
Unlike Monday, no requisition was made on Tuesday to force the resumption of work in refineries and fuel depots on strike, according to the Ministry of Energy Transition. The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, she reported during the day of a “significant improvement” in service stations, of which less than a quarter – against a third previously – are deprived of fuel because of the strike action.
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