“Get even more strikers”. Before the national day of January 31 against pension reform, the strike resumed from this Thursday, January 26 and until Friday in refineries, power plants but also ports and docks.
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Emmanuel Macron’s reform, which all the unions oppose and which will arrive in Parliament on Monday, would lead to the abolition of special regimes at EDF or Engie (ex-GDF Suez). Their employees would also be forced, in the long term, to wait 64 years to receive their retirement.
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On January 31, at the call of all the unions, the strike will affect all sectors: schools, civil servants, transport, services… But in the energy sector, the CGT is organizing additional strikes.
The CGT wishes “go get even more strikers for the 31st and show that we master the work tool”explains to AFP Fabrice Coudour, federal secretary of the CGT in the energy branch.
Drop in production from nuclear power plants
Among electricians and gas producers, production cuts in nuclear power plants and dams were to be expected from this Thursday, but they should not cause power cuts for the general public, as they are supervised by the manager of the high and very high voltage RTE.
Despite the presence of many strikers, “there were not many production cuts that night”Fabrice Coudour also indicated on Thursday, reporting network security messages “from the end of the day on Wednesday”.
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RTE, responsible for ensuring the security of the electricity supply, can send safety messages to the strikers if it considers that the production cuts compromise the operation of the network. It is then up to the employees to respect them.
“We wonder about the veracity of these messages”said the union official, given their publication just before the strike. “If these are messages to guarantee commercial exchanges”the assemblies of strikers will ask themselves if they should “respect them or not”he added.
At the very beginning of the day, the strikers carried out filtering operations at the entrance to the nuclear power plants, delaying the start of work for the day shifts.
“Nothing goes in, nothing comes out”
In refineries, the shutdown of installations is not on the agenda, but fuel shipments will be blocked to depots, with the usual watchword: “Nothing goes in, nothing comes out”.
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At TotalEnergies, the CGT reported this Thursday morning that 100% of strikers at the Flanders depot (North), mobilized since Wednesday evening, 80% at the Normandy refinery, 60% at the La Mède biorefinery (Bouches-du-Rhône ), 50% at the Donges refinery (Loire-Atlantique) and 30% at the Grandpuits site (Seine-et-Marne).
On the menu of these two days of mobilization, also actions “positive”à la Robin des Bois, in energy: free, price reductions and restoration of power for cut households are to be expected, in order to counterbalance the criticisms addressed after the announcement of “targeted cuts”in particular against elected officials in favor of the reform.
Dockers and port workers also on strike
As of Wednesday, cuts took place on wind and solar parks in the Montluçon sector, claimed by the CGT. As always, Enedis will file a complaint.
“We don’t want [pas de] blockages which would be penalizing for all French people and we do not accept any threat “declared Wednesday the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, before the Senate, speaking of “misdemeanor” more than“political or militant action”.
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Nevertheless, the CGT petroleum wishes “a little harder movement”said Thierry Defresne, CGT secretary of the TotalEnergies Europe committee.
“I don’t like the term ‘block’, but we believe that the generalization of the strike is necessary to affect the economy”added Thierry Defresne, who sees this as the only way to do “retreat the government”unlike twenty-four hour movements spaced out in time.
The tankers plan local actions with the employees of the port infrastructures, with which joint demonstrations could be organized. The CGT federation of Ports and Docks has indeed called on dockers and port workers to a twenty-four hour strike this Thursday.
