The CGT did not sign the wage agreement concluded last Friday between the management and two majority unions.
After three weeks on strike, a wage increase deemed too low by the CGT and a lackluster national mobilization, the morning strikers of the oil sites of TotalEnergies renewed their movement on Wednesday, but general assemblies will decide at midday on the following a mobilization that continues to generate gasoline shortages in France.
In the country, 22.8% of service stations were still short of gasoline or diesel, according to the Minister of Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher. Only three of the seven French refineries are not affected by the strike, but to cope, the government has reopened the valves of blocked sites with the help of requisitions from employees, the last one again targeting the TotalEnergies site in Feyzin in the Rhône Wednesday morning, according to Eric Sellini, CGT coordinator.
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Tuesday evening, at the end of a day of strikes and demonstrations throughout the country, the CGT proposed the “renewal of the movement» of the refineries initiated on September 27 until Wednesday at midday, when the new general meetings will be held. As expected, the strikers voted on Wednesday morning to renew the Gonfreville refinery in Normandy, CGT Total Normandy secretary general Alexis Antonioli told AFP.
The morning renewal also concerned the TotalEnergies refineries and depots in La Mède, Feyzin (the depot, the refinery being shut down for technical reasons) and Flandres (depot), confirmed Eric Sellini. According to Olivier Mateu, CGT departmental secretary for Bouches-du-Rhône, “nothing is decided» for the continuation. “It is the employees who will decide“, insists Eric Sellini.
Many elected officials of the union must participate Wednesday morning by videoconference in a national meeting where each section must decide and a decision be taken concerning a call for a general strike, said Olivier Mateu. “Beyond the refiners and the 14,000 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 oil prices. energy or food“, Argued Eric Sellini.
branch agreement
In total, 107,000 people also demonstrated Tuesday in France to demand better wages according to the Ministry of the Interior, “nearly 300,000“According to the CGT. During the previous day of the same type, the CGT had counted fewer participants (250,000), but the Interior more (118,500).
Read alsoThese 90 TotalEnergies strikers blocking refineries and France
In the rest of the energy sector, the CGT has signed a branch agreement with FO and the CFDT on increases in the gas and electricity industries (IEG), we learned on Tuesday from concordant sources. This constitutes a first step for the opening of wage negotiations in good and due form in the 157 companies concerned, including EDF and Engie.
At TotalEnergies, which is part of the chemical sector within professional organizations, the CGT did not sign the salary agreement concluded on Friday between the management and the two majority unions, the CFE-CGC and the CFDT. The agreement provides for a general increase of 5% in salaries, accompanied by individual increases and an exceptional bonus of between 3,000 and 6,000 euros. The CGT demanded 10% to compensate for inflation and take advantage of the exceptional income earned by the group in 2021.
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