Despite growing pressure from the government, the CGT and the management of TotalEnergies had still not opened negotiations on Monday on a wage increase, following nearly two weeks of strikes which caused fuel shortages in almost a third of service stations in France. The strike was thus renewed until Tuesday, and the movement now extends directly to certain service stations of the group, announced the CGT on Monday.
TotalEnergies offered on Sunday to advance wage negotiations scheduled for November to October (no specific date), provided that the refineries and depots currently blocked resume work. A “blackmail”, replied the union on Monday. In the Le Havre refinery, the striking employees voted this followingnoon for a continuation of their movement, report journalists on the spot.
On the Esso-ExxonMobil side, the two refineries of Notre-Dame-de-Gravenchon in Normandy and Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône) were still shut down, the strikers having decided Monday to renew the movement, explained the CGT. A meeting must be held at the end of the day at Matignon on the file.
A denounced blackmail
“TotalEnergies is trying to impose a suspension of the strike before any negotiation meeting and therefore before any proposal for a salary increase. This attempt is perceived as blackmail by the CGT and in no way guarantees the satisfaction of the demands expressed and therefore the resumption of work, “said the union in a press release sent to AFP. “The Coordination of CGT Syndicates of TotalEnergies reaffirms its desire to negotiate as quickly as possible, without being blackmailed. For this, it calls for an immediate meeting on the issue of wages and the establishment of a timetable to respond to demands on employment and investments”, indicated the coordination, which therefore did not seem to want to lift the immediate blockages.
“The blackmail, currently, it is the French who live it, so the objective is to get out of this situation”, had declared a little earlier on BFMTV Jean-Marc Durand, director of refining Europe of TotalEnergies.
“We want those who bother the French to stop as soon as possible, so we want to sit down at the negotiating table, we can do so in a serene atmosphere, and not under a system of blocking supplies from the French” , he continued.
Michel-Édouard Leclerc, director of the brand of the same name, was on Monday rather optimistic. Asked regarding CNews, while his group is one of the big buyers of fuel in France, he assures that, “echoes that we have, it will be resolved within the week”. He also judges that, if “the CGT takes the French hostage by making the balance of power”, he is not surprised. According to him, following Total announced record profits, very large dividend payments and a rebate for consumers, “it was normal for employees to claim their due”.
The executive “puts the pressure”
According to a final update released by the Ministry of Energy Transition at 3 p.m. Sunday, nearly a third (29.7%) of service stations in France lacked at least one fuel (compared to 21% on Saturday).
What cause some concern to the top of the state, which prompted President Emmanuel Macron to call on Friday, from Prague, oil companies and unions for “responsibility” and motorists for calm. “I hope that a solution can be found, a rapid conclusion of the negotiations” and “I call on all the companies concerned and the employees to show a spirit of responsibility”, declared the Head of State during a trip to Château-Gontier (Mayenne), arguing that “blocking” fuel depots was “not a way to negotiate”.
This discontent comes indeed a few days before a march “ once morest the high cost of living”, to which the opposition forces of Nupes are calling next Sunday. “We are putting pressure so that the dialogue can be established as soon as possible”, said Monday on France Inter the Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal. “I always find it rather curious to go on a preventive strike even though a discussion is announced,” he added.
10% increase
The group’s management wants the negotiations to focus on wages for 2023. But given the high inflation, it is 2022 that the CGT wants to talk regarding, which has been calling for several weeks for a renegotiation of the wage measures granted at the start of the year. , equivalent to an average increase of 3.5%. She asks for this year 10% increase in wages – 7% for inflation, 3% for the sharing of wealth – the energy giant having earned $ 10.6 billion in profit in the first half of 2022 .
In the meantime, therefore, the mobilization continued at the Normandy refinery, near Le Havre, the largest in France, the “bio-refinery” at La Mède (Bouches-du-Rhône) and the Flanders fuel depot near Dunkirk (North), while the Feyzin refinery (Rhône) is also shut down due to a technical accident.
