The renewable strike against the pension reform continues this Tuesday, March 14 and notably impacts the majority of refineries.
By VD with AFP
© Le Parisien / Arnaud Journois / MAXPPP / PHOTOPQR/LE PARISIEN/MAXPPP
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Iost French refineries remain blocked on Tuesday on the eve of the 8e day of national mobilization against the pension reform, the strikers being however reluctant to put the sites completely at a standstill when the stocks are almost full. “In TotalEnergies refineries, for the moment that has not changed, shipments are still blocked everywhere” even if production continues, told AFP Éric Sellini, CGT coordinator for the group.
In the refineries of Feyzin (Rhône) and Normandy, the largest in France, the blocking of fuel shipments for almost a week led to a saturation of the product tanks, risking requiring a stoppage of production. In these two TotalEnergies refineries, however, the employees continue to operate with “products that are not immediately marketable” because they “do not want to shut down the refinery for the moment”, detailed Éric Sellini.
Harden the movement
This weekend already, the strikers had agreed “with the management” to let out products in order to be able to continue the strike “without stopping the installations”, two union sources had confirmed to AFP. In the other oil groups, the strike also continues. If the Esso-ExxonMobil refinery in Port-Jérôme-Gravenchon (Seine-Maritime) restarted shipments on Thursday, that of Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône) “is still on strike”, indicated to AFP Eric Sellini.
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Ditto at the Petroineos refinery in Lavera where the workers “are still on strike”, added the union representative, even if the storage tanks there are also reaching saturation. A refinery shutdown can be triggered in two ways: a blocking of shipments which, once the stocks are full, raises the question of the shutdown anyway for safety reasons or a request addressed to the site managers by the strikers.
For several days, the oil unions have been proposing to the refinery strikers to harden the movement against the pension reform by stopping production, but the latter are reluctant to begin these technically delicate and long operations. Shutting down an installation can take three to four days and restarting one or even two weeks.