Disagree. Annual salary negotiations for 2024 failed on Monday at EDF. The final meeting with management resulted in the filing of a strike notice from the four representative union organizations, we learned from consistent sources. Management has proposed a 1.5% increase in payroll, in addition to the 2% general increase at branch level, the company’s first two unions, the CFE-CGC, told AFP. and the CGT.
“Management played a sham of negotiations on us,” thunders Amélie Henri, national secretary of the CFE-CGC, EDF’s first union, which is demanding 4% individual measures. She denounces these proposals, while EDF “will present exceptional financial results”, adding that the company “is facing major challenges in terms of loyalty and recruitment”.
At the end of the previous meeting, at the end of December, the inter-union denounced a “caricature of social dialogue” and called for a “real revision of the proposals” in order to compensate for inflation. Otherwise, it threatened a “social conflict in the middle of winter, when the nation needs EDF the most”.
“Nothing on the table”
“On December 21, (…) they agreed to have a third session today and they came back with nothing on the table,” lamented Thomas Plancot, CGT central union secretary at EDF, whose union was demanding 2.3%. of individual measures, like last year. Contacted by AFP, EDF management did not react immediately.
According to the CGT, it highlighted the company’s debt and the significant investments to be made, in particular to revive nuclear power, in order to justify this status quo. Management “chose to engage in a new standoff with the employees, so the four representative union organizations filed” a joint strike notice “as of January 15,” said Amélie Henri.
In the fall of 2022, a strike led to delays in the work schedule for nuclear power plants, raising fears of shortages in the midst of a European energy crisis. At this stage, the inter-union has not decided on a precise date for mobilization.
Walkouts and filtering at the entrance to several nuclear power plants took place on Monday, notably in Penly (Seine-Maritime), Cruas (Ardèche), Belleville (Cher), Saint-Alban (Isère), Dampierre (Loiret) and Gravelines (North), according to the CGT.