Strikes at TotalEnergies: Emmanuel Macron calls for "responsibility"
The strike continues at TotalEnergies on October 7, 2022. © AP - Michel Euler
Text by: RFI Follow
4 mins
"
Don't panic
": President Emmanuel Macron on Friday, October 7 called on motorists to "
calm
" and oil groups and unions to "
responsibility
" about the strikes which have been causing serious fuel supply problems for several days, in particular at TotalEnergies
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“
I really want to have a message here (…) of a call for calm
,” declared the president after an informal European summit in Prague.
“
I also call on everyone to take responsibility.
(...) All wage demands are legitimate, but they must not prevent each other from living and being able to circulate
”.
A little earlier, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne had called
for "responsibility of the management and employee representatives of these companies
" so that the wage negotiations succeed, following an intervention in Bordeaux, during the Convention of intermunicipalities of France.
Elisabeth Borne
“
I call on the companies concerned, which, for the most part, still have good results, to also consider requests for a salary increase
”, Olivia Grégoire, Minister Delegate for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, previously declared on France info. , without mentioning TotalEnergies by name and its $10.6 billion profit in the first half.
Exceptional results
CEO Patrick Pouyanné has not spoken publicly
about the strike
, but in an internal group video on Tuesday, he acknowledged that "
the company's results are exceptional in 2022 and we will not forget you
".
"
All employees, all our colleagues will receive their just reward on their payslip before the end of the year
", promised Patrick Pouyanné, assuring them that they were "
priority in the sharing of prosperity
".
While the CGT is demanding a 10% increase in 2022 - 7% for inflation, 3% for "
wealth sharing
" -, management has been recalling from the start that it has granted wage measures representing an average increase by 3.5% in 2022 and refers to a negotiating session scheduled for November 15 ... for wages in 2023. The latest I heard, she seemed inflexible on this timetable.
The largest TotalEnergies refinery, near
Le Havre
(Seine-Maritime), is shut down.
Other sites of the group are on strike.
And the two French refineries of the American Esso-ExxonMobil are also stopped, in both cases at the call of the CGT, in order to obtain a wage increase.
Tankers will be exceptionally authorized to circulate on Sunday to deliver the stations.
At the French oil company, in addition to its Normandy refinery, the strikers were massively mobilized at the fuel depot in Flanders, near Dunkirk (North), at the "
bio-refinery
" in La Mède (Bouches-du-Rhône) and at the depot of fuels from Grandpuits (Seine-et-Marne) in particular, to limit the outflow of petroleum products as much as possible, according to the CGT.
At the Feyzin refinery (Rhône), there were “
between 80 and 100% strikers
” in the strategic shipping department, Pedro Afonso (CGT) told AFP.
Blockades by strikers lead to lower fuel deliveries, so petrol stations are more often out of stocks of petrol or diesel.
TotalEnergies manages almost a third of French stations.
19% of service stations in difficulty
But the group also puts the disturbances on the account of the success of the discount at the pump of 20 centimes which it grants since September 1, in addition to the rebate of the State of 30 centimes.
At 1 p.m. on Friday, “
19% of service stations
” in France “
were experiencing difficulties with at least one product
”, according to an updated point from the Ministry of Energy Transition.
The behavior of some motorists has prompted the state to ban the sale and purchase of fuel in jerry cans, particularly in certain departments of Hauts-de-France, where stations have been stormed.
The Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, acknowledged, after a meeting with prefects in Arras, that the tensions were "
significant
" in Pas-de-Calais and the North, but assured that the situation was improving. .
In the Pas-de-Calais, 52% of the stations had according to her "
difficulties
" Thursday and 42% today.
In the North, it was 47% Thursday and 43% Friday.
She underlined that the government had set up fuel transport from Belgium and by boat via the port of Rouen and recalled that the use of the strategic stocks of the State was activated punctually.
For the regional prefect, Georges-François Leclerc, the return to normal is "
difficult to predict
".
“
It's all about logistics.
Logistics can take a little time.
»
(With
AFP)
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Economy
Energies
Emmanuel Macron
Elisabeth Borne
Oil
France