A compromise was found without the CGT wanting to amplify the movement
A compromise on pay was seen between the two unions and TotalEnergies overnight from Thursday to Friday, but the CGT has knocked on the door and wants to amplify the movement.
October 13, 2022 in front of the entrance of the Total Energies depot in Martic.
AFP
The TotalEnergies group and the two majority unions appeared to have agreed on a pay rise in the group on Friday, but the CGT, in the wake of a strike that has caused shortages of scarce petrol in France, has refused any deal and vowed to continue the strike. .
Under pressure from the government and an 18-day-long strike, the oil group’s management called four representative unions for emergency talks overnight from Thursday to Friday. It was at 3:30 a.m. that representatives of the two reformist trade unions, CFDT and CFE-CGC, left TotalEnergies’ headquarters in La Défense to announce their support for management’s latest proposal, according to them a 7% salary increase and a bonus of 3000 to 6000 euros.
“The CFDT negotiating team provides positive feedback on the measures that are on the table,” said CFDT Coordinator Jeffrey Kylan. According to its coordinator Dominique Convert, the concept is “positive” for CFE-CGC. Each union will now consult its members before noon on Friday to decide whether or not to sign the offer.
Without confirming the figure of 7%, rather than the 6% proposed on Thursday, TotalEnergies’ executive committee member Namitha Shah confirmed, “We submitted the contract for signing before noon.”
The CGT had already left the building, defying the agreement of the other two unions, which between them held a strong 56% representation. “This will not change the mental state and determination of the strikers,” predicts Alexis Antonioli, who now expects a “generalization of the movement.”
The purge movement has actually already turned into calls for a general strike, and following Thursday’s call by the four main unions (CGT, FO, Solidaires), from transport to civil servants, next Tuesday should be a big day of national strike action. , FSU) and many other youth organizations. Tuesday’s strike will particularly affect SNCF and RATP.
The government has pushed hard for these talks to begin, and Emmanuel Macron has promised that a return to normality will take place “in the coming week”.
“catastrophe”
In Hauts-de-France, Île-de-France and Centre-Val-de-Loire, motorists continued to search for petrol and diesel engines, with tankers scrambling for refueling and monitoring due to shortages caused by strikes at refineries and fuel depots. applications. A significant time-wasting shortage for professionals who rely on their vehicle: road drivers, handymen, paramedics…
“For four or five days, it’s a disaster,” exclaims François Ernst, a driving school instructor in Paris. “We can no longer work.” “It’s a real problem, not just for business leaders, but for everyone,” testified Enzo Rouges, business manager for the automobile sector at the BP station in Paris. Truckers are “on a razor’s edge,” he assures AFP.
Only one refinery ended its strike on Thursday, that of Fos-sur-Mer belonging to Esso-ExxonMobil, where an agreement was signed on Monday with the CFDT and CFE-CGC, but was rejected by the CGT. On the other hand, the strikers of Gravenchon-Port-Jérôme renewed it on Thursday. Five of the seven refineries in France have been closed, and several other depots, including a large depot near Dunkirk owned by Total Energies, have been closed.
First shares issued
At 5:00 p.m. Thursday, 29.1% of stations ran out of one or more fuels, according to the Energy Transition Ministry, up from the previous day (30.8%). In the Center Val-de-Loire, the rate rises to 44.7%.
The talks began after government demands to reopen the floodgates to workers at the Esso-ExxonMobil refinery in Gravenchon in Normandy and TotalEnergies’ Flanders depot in Mardyck, near Dunkirk.
In the field, the first requested employees, forced to work under penalty of criminal sanctions, made it possible to release the first stocks of fuel by pipeline (according to the government, 7,000 cubic meters in 24 hours from the Gravenzone depot in Normandy) and by road (25 tankers from Dunkirk on Thursday), the incident Without.
To speed up the recovery, the government has allowed tanker trucks to ply again this weekend, while heavy goods vehicles are generally banned from plying between 10pm on Saturday and 10pm on Sunday.
AFP
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