► Strike renewed on all Total sites despite a compromise
On the other hand, the strike was renewed on Friday October 13 on all the blocked sites of the TotalEnergies group. The strike continues ” everywhere ” announced in the morning Eric Sellini, CGT coordinator for the group. The situation did not change in the afternoon, during the change of teams where the blockage was confirmed.
The two majority unions of TotalEnergies, the CFE-CGC and the CFDT, had previously signed the agreement on wages reached on Friday night from Thursday to Friday. This provides for a 7% increase in 2023 retroactive to November 1, 2022, the group and the unions concerned announced on Friday.
“After internal consultation, we have just signed the agreement”, indicated Dominique Convert, CFE-CGC coordinator. His CFDT counterpart Geoffrey Caillon pointed out that for his union, “validating this agreement also means asking everyone to calm the climate”. The management for its part stresses in a press release that this is an agreement “majority” and calls for “end of the strike on all of its sites”.
► No strikers on the Exxon site in Port-Jérôme-Gravenchon
There is “no striker” Friday morning on the site of the Esso-ExxonMobil refinery in Port-Jérôme-Gravenchon (Seine-Maritime), where a strike to demand wage increases had started on September 20, the FO union announced on Friday.
“The employees have decided to return to work but to give management an ultimatum for the mandatory annual negotiation of December 6”, said the center FO union representative at Esso-ExxonMobil, Pierre-Antoine Auger. The CGT confirmed that there was “no strikers on the morning shift”.
In the afternoon, the FO delegate sounded the time for the end of the strike at Esso. “The strike movement has been lifted here as in Fos-sur-mer, negotiations with management are blocked and requisitions are in place, we no longer have any leverage to fight” he added. On the other site of the group, in Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône), the strike had lifted Thursday.
► The CGT loses on the requisitions
The Rouen administrative court on Friday morning rejected the CGT’s interim appeal to challenge the prefectural orders for the requisitioning of striking personnel from the Esso refinery depot.
The Administrative Court finds in particular that “the use of individual requisition measures for qualified agents is necessary to prevent the risk of harm to public order in view of the duration of the supply failures caused by the strike”.
The Normandy site of Esso-ExxonMobil, where work resumed Friday morning, was the first to be targeted by requisitions from depot personnel to allow the delivery of fuel.
► The CGT calls to extend the strike
The agreement signed at TotalEnergies by CFDT and CFE-CGC “ will not change the state of mind and the determination of the strikers”predicted Alexis Antonioli, now hoping “the generalization of the movement. »
The refinery movement now continues with calls to expand the movement. Next Tuesday should be the occasion of a big day of national strike, from transport to civil servants, following the call Thursday of four major unions (CGT, FO, Solidaires, FSU) and several youth organizations. Tuesday’s strike will particularly affect the SNCF and the RATP.
► Prices of €3 per liter are not justified, judge Pannier-Runacher
Fuel prices at the pump of almost €3 per liter are not “in no way” justified despite the strike at TotalEnergies, the Minister for Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher ruled on Friday, calling on distributors not to ” to profit from “ of the shortage.
If certain price increases are “linked to the fact that we import from abroad” and supply costs “superiors”, “this in no way justifies the three-euro pump prices”explained the minister on LCI.
“I appeal to distributors not to take advantage of this situation to increase their prices and increase their margins, this is absolutely unacceptable”added Agnès Pannier-Runacher, specifying that the authorities will “continue checks”.
