The government launched, this Thursday, the requisition of the personnel of the TotalEnergies de Flandres fuel depot near Dunkirk, in the North.

The site is blocked by strikers, but the state is still counting on the resumption of social dialogue "in the next few hours", AFP learned from Matignon.

"The requisition of personnel has been initiated for it to be effective at 2 p.m." and "the government is still counting on the fact that the dialogue can resume in the coming hours between the management of the company and the representatives of the employees", we said, from the same source.

“Particularly degraded situation”

Thursday morning, two police trucks, a dozen police officers, were positioned in front of the Mardyck depot.

About thirty employees, with union flags, were also present in front of the entrance.

While discussions between management and unions of TotalEnergies failed on Wednesday, the government considers that the “situation is particularly degraded” in Hauts-de-France and the “real economic threat”.

In Hauts-de-France, the blockage "puts the French in difficulty" while the Dunkirk depot - one of the group's largest in Europe - represents a large part of the supply in the region.

In addition "certain economic sectors (industry, fishing, agriculture) of the territory are also in danger", estimate the services of the Prime Minister.

“Infringement of the right to strike”

Clément Mortier, FO general secretary on the Mardyck site, said he wanted to “contest these requisitions in court, because for us it is an attack on the right to strike.

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“We have just learned from three employees that the requisitions have been officially launched, he also specified.

They were visited by the security forces at their home to have them sign a requisition paper and order them to come to work from 2 p.m. this afternoon until 6 a.m. tomorrow morning (…), in order to ensure fuel shipment operations.

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An interministerial crisis unit had been set up on Wednesday, and the executive had indicated that another requisition order would be activated if the strike continued on this site.

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  • Economy

  • Shortage

  • Fuels

  • Essence

  • Lille

  • Hauts-de-France

  • Dunkirk

  • Strike

  • TotalEnergies