The French government has made good on its threat: in the face of oil company strikers determined to continue their wage strike, it has made a first request to release an Esso-ExxonMobil fuel depot in the north-west of the country.
“Following the renewal of the strike by some of the staff at Port-Jérôme in Normandy, the government is requisitioning the staff essential to the operation of the depot. The requirement starts today,” the Energy Transition Ministry told AFP.
The few strikers who are essential to the release of fuel from the tanks should therefore be forced to work under threat of criminal penalties.
Despite this threat, first made the day before by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, early Wednesday morning the strikers decided to continue their movement and prolong the fuel shortage affecting the whole of France.
In addition to tank farms, six of the seven French refineries went on strike on Wednesday: the four of TotalEnergies and the two of Esso-ExxonMobil.
At TotalEnergies, the strike has been going on for two weeks and is picking up speed. At all moving sites, the strike was renewed on Wednesday with “nearly 100% of the strikers among operators,” Eric Sellini, the group’s CGT coordinator, told AFP.
At the heart of the demands: wage increases while inflation rages and oil companies make super profits from price hikes linked to the war in Ukraine. TotalEnergies’ CGT is therefore calling for a wage increase of 10% for 2022 compared to 3.5% at the beginning of the year.
As the movement continues, the strikers risk a brutal epilogue with calls for some of them to restart factories, like the memorable precedent of 2010 under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy.
For the depots, the restart would be immediate because it would be quite easy, since it would be enough to open the valves for the trucks. But “if there is a request to restart production at the refinery, it will take at least two weeks,” explains Gil Vilard of CGT Esso.
“Difficult situation”
Due to a lack of supply, around 30% of the gas stations in France were dry on Tuesday evening.
And from north to south of the country the same scenes were repeated: closed gas stations, endless queues, rising prices and motorists’ morale at half-staff.
“Gasoline is too important to us! You see, we’ve been fighting for more than a week,” says Santiago, one of the countless couriers “struggling to fill up” in Paris, like all those whose vehicle is a work tool.
With lines of disgruntled motorists being interviewed on a loop in news channels, and under fire from opposition criticism, the government on Tuesday threatened requisition, initially only to unlock Esso-ExxonMobil’s depots.
A collective agreement was signed there on Monday by two unions, mostly at group level, but not by the CGT, the union that originated the strike.
Ms. Borne also mentioned the possibility of purchase requisitions at TotalEnergies.
Beginning of the dialogue? This group invited the representative unions “not participating in the strike movement” to a meeting of “consultation and exchange” on Wednesday afternoon.
“If the CGT lifts all site locks, it will be welcome at this dialogue meeting,” the French giant said.
Mr. Sellini sees this as a way to “sack” the CGT and thus “justify” government intervention if it refuses to lift the blockades.
In the event of a requisition, “we will go to court to have it annulled,” Eric Sellini warned, while Esso-ExxonMobil’s CGT denounced “a challenge to the right to strike.”