EDF: call for a strike against the measures imposed on the group to contain the electricity bill

Europe 1 with AFP 11:26 a.m., January 18, 2022

The four main unions in the energy sector have launched a joint call for a strike by EDF employees on January 26 to protest against the measures that the government plans to impose on the group to contain the rise in electricity bills . 

A "scandalous" decision

"We had an interfederal meeting last night, the four organizations, FO, CCFE-CGC, CFDT and FNME-CGT, we made a joint appeal on January 26," Fabrice Coudour, federal secretary of the FNME, told AFP. - CGT in charge of the claims policy. The four branch unions are calling, according to him, "to protest against this scandalous decision to increase the ceiling of the Arenh (Regulated access to historical nuclear electricity, editor's note), which comes to despoil the role of EDF, even to organize the destruction of EDF".

In order to limit the rise in electricity prices for consumers, in a context of soaring energy prices, the French government on Thursday asked EDF, of which the State owns 84%, to increase by 20% the volume of nuclear electricity sold at a reduced price to its competitors this year. The group will therefore sell at a reduced price up to 40% of its electricity production in 2022, instead of selling at high market prices, and lose billions of euros - around 8 billion on its 2022 gross operating surplus. , according to him.

A decision that moved even in the highest echelons of the energy company.

In an internal message to EDF "managers", CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy described the government's decision as a "real shock".

"This is not what we had proposed to the government" and this decision "will weigh heavily on our results", he underlines in this text consulted by AFP.

Black week for EDF

"Many of you have expressed your support, even your indignation, and I share your emotion," also wrote the CEO. This government decision last week added to new delays for the Flamanville EPR (Manche) and the extension of the corrosion problem on safety systems to new reactors. The course of EDF had plunged at the end of this dark week.

The call of 26 is independent of another social movement intended to defend a revaluation of wages in the whole of the energy sector, at the call of the only FNME-CGT.

This call for a strike, renewable from the 25th, has already given rise to some local strike movements, in particular in some EDF thermal power stations, power stations running on gas, fuel oil and what remains of coal, in Martigues for example. .