The Prime Minister urged management and unions at TotalEnergies to engage in wage negotiations, threatening otherwise to do the same for “unblock the situation“.
Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne announced on Tuesday the requisition of personnel for the unblocking of the fuel depots of the Esso-Exxonmobil group, where a wage agreement had been concluded on Monday by two trade union organizations, the majority at the level of the group but not of its refineries. . “Social dialogue means moving forward once a majority has emerged. These are not minimum agreements. Management announcements are significant. Therefore, I asked the prefects to initiate, as permitted by law, the procedure for requisitioning the personnel essential to the operation of the depots of this company.“said Ms. Borne during questions to the government.
Esso has three depots in France, in Toulouse, Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône) and Notre-Dame-de-Gravenchon (Seine-Maritime). The last two are near the company’s two French refineries, which are on strike. Commenting on the situation in the other oil group affected by strike movements, TotalEnergies, the head of government urged management and unions to engage in wage negotiations, threatening otherwise to do the same for “unblock the situation“.
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“At Total, the reformist unions called for the opening of negotiations. Management responded positively. I hope that the other representative unions will seize this outstretched hand, because social dialogue is always more fruitful than conflict.“said Ms. Borne. “Failing this, the government will act, again, to unblock the situation“, she added.
The Prime Minister was responding to a question from LR deputy Éric Ciotti, who had estimated “that France is no longer governed“, denouncing a”contemptfrom the executive. The government, under fire from critics while a third of service stations are affected by fuel shortages, had called for a release “without delayof the fuel depots, threatening toto intervene“, but the strikers renewed the movement, both at TotalEnergies and at Esso-ExxonMobil.
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