Oil depots, ports, roads, trains: new blocking actions across the country against pension reform

-Fuel

At the national level, the situation is deteriorating slightly, with 14.30% of petrol stations in shortage of at least one type of fuel against 12% on Tuesday, and 7.13% are dry, against 6% on Tuesday.

In the South-East, the Alpes-Maritimes have announced a rationing of the quantities of fuel available at the pump, as previously the Gard, Vaucluse, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence or Var.

Fuel shortage in metropolitan © France / AFP

In France only one in four TotalEnergies refinery is in operation.

The two refineries of Esso-ExxonMobil are still running: that of Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône), which operates at minimum flow, and that of Port-Jérôme-Gravenchon (Seine-Maritime). However, fuel shipments remain blocked at both sites.

On the oil depot side, that of Puget-sur-Argens (Var), was blocked Wednesday for seven hours.

Two simultaneous blocking actions on two roundabouts serving two oil depots were also carried out north of Bordeaux.

Dockers block the entrance to an oil depot on March 22, 2023 in Lorient © FRED TANNEAU / AFP

On the port of Lorient (Morbihan), the two entrances leading to the oil depot were blocked in the morning by a hundred demonstrators, who were pushed back by the police.

-Ports

The ports of Marseille-Fos and Brest were totally blocked Wednesday as part of a day of action "dead ports" at the call of the CGT union.

In addition, in the port area of Boulogne-sur-Mer (Pas-de-Calais), demonstrators carried out a punch action in the morning, lighting fires on the accesses leading to the port.

Protesters block the port of Marseille-Fos, March 22, 2023 © NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP

-Roads

Pallet and tyre fires lit by demonstrators led to the closure for more than eight hours of the A55 in the Fos-Marseille direction, causing major traffic jams.

In Savoie, a hundred demonstrators carried out two free toll operations between 7:00 and 9:00 on the A43 and A430 at the tolls of Chambéry Nord (without Lyon-Chambéry) and that of Saint-Hélène-sur-Isère.

Protesters block the bridge of Saint-Nazaire, March 22, 2023 © LOIC VENANCE / AFP

In Saint-Nazaire, a hundred demonstrators blocked the bridge of Saint-Nazaire at 06:00 to 14:30.

-Trains

Rail traffic was halted Wednesday at several stations in southern France after protesters broke onto the tracks. As in Toulouse, Montpellier or Nîmes

Thursday the SNCF will be able to run only half of its TGV Inoui and Ouigo and a third of its TER.

Protesters block the tracks of the Toulouse-Matabiau train station, March 22, 2023 © Charly TRIBALLEAU / AFP

According to several union sources, the rate of declaration of intent, which concerns employees obliged to declare themselves on strike 48 hours in advance to allow the organization of the transport plan, reaches 35% at the SNCF.

- Metro and RER "very disrupted"

Paris metro and RER traffic will be "very disrupted" on Thursday with partially closed lines and stations where trains will not stop. Only the automated lines (1 and 14) will run normally, and the 4 almost normally, while the others will run at variable times during the day.

On the RER side, the RATP plans one train out of two on lines A and B (the latter closing from 23:00). Auber station will be closed. 80% of buses will be in circulation and almost normal traffic is planned for trams.

Pension reform: mobilizations planned for March © 23 Nalini LEPETIT-CHELLA / AFP

On the SNCF side in the Paris region, traffic will also be "very strongly disrupted" with 20% to 50% of trains maintained, depending on the RER lines. The most affected line is that of the RER E with only one train in five planned.

Friday, traffic should remain "disrupted" in Ile-de-France, said the SNCF.

-Gas

According to the CGT, the gas companies of the Dunkirk terminal (North) decided to close the valves on Thursday and reduce the flow to the technical minimum for 24 hours before a general assembly Friday morning "to see how they plan to continue the action".

In gas depots, such as that of Gournay-sur-Aronde (Oise), employees evoke the idea of "drying the network", an action for the moment ruled out because a return to service takes months.

-Universities

Several universities are blocked by students.

On the Bron site of Lyon 2 University, the faculty management announced that no activity would take place on Wednesday.

In Saint-Etienne, the blockade of the university, which began Monday at the call of the student union OSE (Student Solidarity Organization) was extended Wednesday. Sixty striking students block access to four sites. A site of the university in Roubaix (Nord) is blocked, as well as the site of Sciences Po Lille.

Students gather in general assembly at the University of Toulouse, March 22, 2023 © Charly TRIBALLEAU / AFP

In Toulouse, Wednesday evening, a thousand students met for the first time in general assembly and voted to block the three universities of the city from Thursday, a renewable blockade.

"Thursday, we block everything," enthuses Math, 18, a student at the University of Toulouse-Jean Jaurès. "It's been a long time since we waited for a student mobilization, it seems that we needed the 49.3 unfortunately, but it's never too late, it's only the beginning, here at Mirail we are pumped up, we will continue to mobilize in the coming days," he promises.

-Rubbish

The strike of Parisian garbage collectors initiated on March 6 against the pension reform is extended until Monday, according to CGT officials who block access to the incineration plant of Ivry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne).

Wednesday, according to the mayor of Paris, 9,500 tons littered the sidewalks, an estimate slightly increased for the first time since the beginning of the requisitions decided Thursday by the prefecture of police.

Garbage cans overflowing with garbage on a sidewalk during the garbage collectors' strike, March 22, 2023 in Paris © ALAIN JOCARD / AFP

The incineration plants of Ivry-sur-Seine and Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine) were still blocked, that of Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis) is the subject of a filtering barrier and the evacuation site of Romainville (Seine-Saint-Denis) was again unblocked by the police, according to the Syctom union.

In Lyon, eight dump trucks belonging to the technical services of the metropolis were sabotaged in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday.

-Air transport

At Bordeaux-Mérignac airport, an "unannounced" strike movement of air traffic control caused Wednesday the cancellation of about thirty flights and "some delays", said a spokeswoman for the airport.

In France for Thursday the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) asks airlines to cancel 30% of their flights at Paris-Orly and 20% at other airports.

Demonstration against the pension reform, March 22, 2023 in Bordeaux © Philippe LOPEZ / AFP

The Marseille-Provence, Toulouse-Blagnac and Lyon-Saint-Exupéry platforms are affected by the cancellation of one in five flights departing or arriving. These instructions seem to reflect a greater mobilization of air traffic controllers than that observed in recent days.

© 2023 AFP