Motorists wait to refuel in front of a TotalEnergies service station in Marseille, October 6, 2022 (AFP / Nicolas TUCAT)
The CGT at TotalEnergies proposed on Saturday to limit its demands to the question of wage increases in order to begin negotiations on Monday in the midst of a strike movement in refineries and depots, at the origin of still significant supply disruptions in the gas stations.
After ten days of strikes which shut down the main refinery of the French group and two others of the Esso-ExxonMobil group, the CGT has proposed to renounce its demands on hiring and investments in France to open negotiations. .
“We are ready to start them on Monday on the basis of our wage claim alone,” wrote Éric Sellini, CGT coordinator at TotalEnergies, on Saturday in an open letter addressed to the CEO of TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanné and posted on twitter.
The latter has not spoken publicly to date on the movement, but in an internal group video on Tuesday, he acknowledged that “the company’s results are exceptional in 2022” — $ 10.6 billion in profit in the first half — and said “we won’t forget you”.
In recent days, executive pressure on the group has intensified. From Prague on Friday, President Emmanuel Macron called on oil groups and unions for “responsibility”, relayed by the statements of several ministers pushing for wage increases.
“There is no general supply problem for our country, it is important to repeat it”, commented in turn on Saturday the Minister of Transport Clément Beaune. “There are localized phenomena, linked to social movements: everyone is called to responsibility, companies and trade unions as the Prime Minister said yesterday, so that the situation is resolved as quickly as possible; is also in their hands, we encourage them to do so,” he said on the sidelines of Paralympic Day on Saturday in Paris.
As a result, in part, of these strikes, “20.7% of service stations are experiencing difficulties with at least one product”, against 19% the day before, according to a count Saturday at 1 p.m. from the Ministry of Energy Transition.
“The Hauts-de-France and Ile-de-France remain particularly affected, even if the situation is improving very slightly there”, according to the authorities. Thus, in Pas-de-Calais “41% of stations encounter difficulties”, that is to say ruptures on at least one fuel, “against 52% the day before yesterday”, and in 39% on Saturday in the North (against 47% Thursday).
– 10% increase –
“The measures we have taken, including the authorization for heavy goods vehicles refueling the stations to circulate at the weekend, have made it possible to stabilize the situation at the national level”, declared Saturday afternoon to the press the Minister of the energy transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
The CGT began its movement at the end of September to demand a 10% increase in wages for 2022 – 7% for inflation, 3% for the sharing of wealth.
For its part, management recalls that it has granted salary measures representing an average increase of 3.5% in 2022 and refers to a negotiation session scheduled for November 15 for salaries for 2023. It seems inflexible on this timetable.
“We are facing a hardline management which refuses, despite gigantic profits, to discuss 2022 salaries again”, declared Alexis Antonioli, CGT general secretary on the Normandy platform, considering himself “taken hostage” by a management ” who refuses to open a discussion”. “From 70% to 90% of the teams” are on strike, “we have between 100 and 150 daily workers mobilized”, he added.
Asked Saturday about France Inter, the secretary general of the CFDT Laurent Berger for his part disapproved of these “preventive strikes”, judging it necessary to first go through negotiation.
On Saturday, three of the six French refineries were still shut down, according to the CGT: the largest refinery of TotalEnergies, in Normandy, and the two French refineries of the American Esso-ExxonMobil.
In addition, at the TotalEnergies refinery in Feyzin (Rhône), “there were 100% strikers in the dispatch service at 6 a.m.”, declared Pedro Afonso, elected CGT, preventing any filling of the trucks.
Blockades by strikers lead to lower fuel deliveries, so petrol stations are more often out of stocks of petrol or diesel. TotalEnergies manages almost a third of French stations.
But the group also puts the disturbances on the account of the success of the discount at the pump of 20 cents which it grants since September 1, in addition to the rebate of the State of 30 cents.
© 2022 AFP
Did you like this article ? Share it with your friends with the buttons below.
