Free electricity, cuts, load reductions: what the CGT plans against the pension reform

Europe 1 with AFP 7:09 p.m., January 23, 2023

The CGT Mines-Energie has started to organize itself for new "highlights" in the mobilization against the pension reform bill: voluntary cuts, free for certain customers, new production cuts, it warns Monday that it will not forbid anything "until the withdrawal" of the project.

It thus intends to gain momentum before new interprofessional “highlights” on Thursday and Friday and before the next national day of action on January 31.

Free operations envisaged

From the start, it had been discussed: "free" operations are becoming clearer, as in Marseille, where the union intends to reduce the bills of traders whose electricity bills are rising, such as bakers.

“We have the technical capacity to lower the energy bills of bakers, without endangering property or people,” Renaud Henry, secretary general of CGT Energie Marseille, told AFP.

Without wanting to specify how this “completely illegal” operation will be carried out, he indicates that it could reduce their bill by half.

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"It must have started, we launched the call last week", adds Renaud Henry, not yet able to specify the number of bakers concerned, and the number of agents involved.

“There are a lot of reflections around positive actions of free, as in Marseille”, indicated Fabrice Coudour, federal secretary of the FNME-CGT.

"Reduced prices (forcing the switch to off-peak hours), removal of consumption metering,... but also reinstatement of all those who are cut off despite the winter break", indicated Fabrice Coudour.

Upcoming targeted power cuts

Some of these "Robins Hood" actions could involve schools and hospitals within the week, he said, although at this stage there was nothing concrete yet.

Alongside these actions, targeted cuts, which are just as illegal, could again take place in the coming days, after those which last week affected, among others, a Renaissance deputy from Lot, the city center of Montpellier, and the towns of Massy in Essonne and Chaumont in Haute-Marne.

The secretary general of the CGT Philippe Martinez spoke on Sunday of the possibility of cutting off the power to billionaires, like Vincent Bolloré.

"We will not attack the integrity of people", assured Fabrice Coudour: "The government tells us that we must make energy sobriety for non-essential buildings. For us, those who do not listen the anger of the workers, they can be considered as non-essential buildings".

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Regarding nuclear power plants, at least three of them have called for a renewal of the strike and could proceed with further production cuts, at Civaux in Vienne, Golfech in Tarn-et-Garonne, and Paluel in Seine- Maritime, but "almost all are organized so that there is at least one hour of stoppage per day", according to Fabrice Coudour.