Government measures to limit the rise in electricity prices in France do not pass at EDF. The four main unions in the energy sector launched a joint call for a strike by EDF employees on Tuesday, January 18.
“We had an interfederal meeting last night, the four organizations, FO, CFE-CGC, CFDT and FNME-CGT, made a joint appeal [pour] January 26”, announced to Agence France-Presse (AFP) Fabrice Coudour, federal secretary of the FNME-CGT in charge of protest policy.
The four branch unions call, according to him, “to protest against this scandalous decision to increase the ceiling of the Arenh [Accès régulé à l’électricité nucléaire historique], which comes to despoil the role of EDF, or even organize the destruction of EDF”.
As energy prices soar, the government on Thursday asked EDF, of which the state owns 84%, to increase by 20% the volume of nuclear electricity sold at reduced prices to its competitors this year in order to contain rising bills for consumers.
Instead of selling at high market prices, the group will therefore sell at a reduced price up to 40% of its electricity production in 2022 and lose billions of euros – around 8 billion on its 2022 gross operating surplus, according to EDF.
The government’s decision is a “shock”, according to the CEO
The decision moved even in the highest circles of the energy company. In an internal message to EDF “managers”, CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy described the government’s decision as “real shock”. “This is not what we had proposed to the government”, this decision “will weigh heavily on our results”, he underlined in this text, consulted by AFP. “Many of you have expressed your support, even your indignation, and I share your emotion”, also wrote the CEO.
This government decision, last week, added to new delays for the EPR of Flamanville (Manche) and to the problem of corrosion on safety systems of new reactors. The course of EDF had plunged at the end of this dark week.
The call of 26 is independent of another social movement intended to defend a revaluation of wages in the whole of the energy sector, at the call of the only FNME-CGT. This call for a renewable strike from the 25th has already sparked a few strike movements locally. This is particularly the case in some thermal power plants of EDF – power plants running on gas, fuel oil and what remains of coal – as in Martigues.