The national center for RTE dispatchers in Saint-Denis (illustrative image).

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GERARD JULIEN / AFP

RTE's “dispatchers”, these agents who direct electricity into the network, have been on strike since February 8.

They are protesting against the planned passage by 2025 from eight to three regional centers.

"Dispatchers are on a renewable strike against the RTE 2025 project, calling into question the safety of the electricity system in a currently very tense context," the CGT Mines and Energy federation said in a statement.

Ongoing negotiations

According to the management of the network manager, who identified “8%” of strikers on Friday within the Operation branch (around 800 people including 250 dispatchers), “the movement does not affect the security of supply because these professions have an obligation to perform essential tasks ”.

"This morning, with 17 striking agents out of 32 among shift dispatchers, the strike rate is 53%," Jean-Louis Oumeila, CGT secretary of the central CSE told AFP.

“Scheduled maintenance operations and worksites are canceled”.

The management is currently renegotiating a working time agreement until the end of March, downwards according to the unions (teams working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week), which have filed strike notices until March 12 for the CFDT and March 26 for the CGT.

"Black-out"

"RTE's Central Social and Economic Committee has issued a negative opinion on the project", explained the CGT.

“The independent expert's report highlights the motivations for productivity gains at the origin of the reorganization”.

Citing an electrical context made more complex by the development of renewable energies, market operations and climate crises, the CGT assures us that "this reform could lead to a deterioration in the quality of operation of the electrical networks which could go as far as black-out" and regrets the lack of consideration of the “pandemic risk”.

“In the event of a generalized incident, there is a need to be able to distribute network management over a multiplicity of rooms.

This is currently the case, ”continues the FNME-CGT, which wonders what would happen if a cluster linked to Covid were, for example, to appear in one of the three rooms that will remain in Saint-Denis, Nantes and Marseille.

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