Pension reform: Stade de France and Olympic Village site deprived of power

Europe 1 with AFP 3:42 p.m., March 9, 2023

Forests of arms rise, smoke bombs spread plumes of red CGT smoke: north of Paris, electricians and gas workers camouflage a handful of colleagues who have just cut off the power to the Stade de France and the Olympic village site, an action to to protest against the pension reform.

In just a few minutes on Thursday, "the action deprived the Olympic village of energy, the district at the level of the commercial area, data centers and also the Stade de France", declared Sébastien Ménesplier, secretary general of the CGT energy , in front of the press invited to relay this symbolic action of the hardening committed by the strikers of the sector this week.

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About 300 agents present for this action

"Faced with a government straight in its boots, we too are straight in our boots (...) I appeal to the responsibility of the government and of the President of the Republic: withdraw your reform and the electricians and the gas workers will resume the work for the public service and the general interest", he added.

About 300 agents were present for this action, some of whom, wearing hoods, raised their arms and lit smoke bombs to protect those who cut off the power from view and camera lenses, this type of wild cut being illegal.

Gathered in the early morning in a sports complex in the name of Nelson Mandela, just a few kilometers away, they were escorted in five coaches to reach this "Ampère source station" as discreetly as possible, renovated last September with a view to Olympic Games and the Grand Paris Express metro.

This is where the energy from the nuclear power stations arrives via the RTE network, in an RTE/Enedis source substation, with a large transformer, "and there are plenty of cables that leave to supply neighborhoods, businesses, people", explains Frédéric Probel, general secretary of the CGT Energie Bagneux union.

500 customers without power for a short time

The agents first interrupted the possibility for RTE to operate and monitor the substation remotely, a maneuver which today is worth to four former agents of the manager of the high and very high voltage lines to be prosecuted, after being fired.

Hence the precautions and the arrival in numbers to drown the action in the mass of agents present.

"We opened the switches of four cables, one which supplied the commercial area and the Stade de France, one which supplied three data centers, and one which supplied the construction site of the Olympic village", explained Frédéric Probel.

Enedis reports to AFP that just over 500 customers were effectively deprived of power, but that power was restored immediately via remote maneuvers for most of them, technicians working on site to "resupply the last customers".

The company says it will press charges, as always.

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An action voted by a show of hands in the morning

The action was voted on by a show of hands a few hours earlier by the agents, in the gymnasium where they were gathered, before singing a song that has been all the rage among energy agents since the start of the challenge to the project. which could delay their retirement by two years, but also abolish their special pension scheme: "Emmanuel Macron, if you continue, it will be all dark at home!"

"We decide together, I'm not behind each employee, they are angry, it's a way to release the anger, to make it clear that we are there, we are useful for something", explained Frédéric Probel.

This action was "an important meeting for the day of 'energy sobriety' that we organized everywhere in the country", indicated Sébastien Ménesplier, according to whom targeted cuts affected throughout France logistics platforms, centers commercial, industrial.