The strike continued on Thursday in the French refineries of the hydrocarbon giant TotalEnergies, as well as at its competitor Esso-ExxonMobil, to obtain wage increases to compensate for inflation, according to union sources.
“We are still mobilized, wherever there are shutdown operations underway, it continues,” said Eric Sellini, CGT coordinator for the group, referring in particular to the shutdown underway since Wednesday of the Normandy refinery, the largest in France, to which management was forced for safety reasons.
The trade unionist put forward an average mobilization rate of 80% of the production workforce present on the sites, a figure that management did not wish to comment on.
This strike, which began on Thursday for three days to obtain a 10% increase in wages, was initially scheduled to end on Thursday evening, but a renewal of the movement on Friday was not excluded, according to Mr. Sellini, who gave an appointment in the morning, to know “if all sites on strike renew the movement.
Even if it represents some 22% of refining capacity in France, according to data from Ufip (oil groups), the stoppage of the Normandy refinery, does not jeopardize the supply of service stations in the short term, according to the group, which had indicated Wednesday to have proceeded to imports and have stocks “that can last between 20 days and one month”, in addition to the strategic stocks held by France.
France usually imports about 50% of its diesel needs but exports gasoline.
If the Normandy refinery were to be shut down, only two of the eight refineries in France – six refineries and two bio-refineries – would be in operation, with the others also affected by strikes or shut down for work or maintenance operations, according to the CGT.
The renewal of the movement in the two French refineries of the group Esso-ExxonMobil, in the departments of Seine-Maritime and Bouches-du-Rhône, on strike for ten days and stopped, has been voted on Thursday, said Christophe Aubert, coordinator CGT group.
