France forces the opening of two refineries to combat the lack of fuel at gas stations

The French government has made the decision this Tuesday to open by force the two ExxonMobil refineries that are stopped by a strike that also extends to others of TotalEnergies and that is causing shortage problems in 30% of the country’s gas stations.

The French Prime Minister, Elizabeth Borneannounced in the government control session in the National Assembly that the “indispensable personnel for the operation” of the ExxonMobil refineries will be forced to work, after an agreement was signed on Monday between the management and several unions.

“Social dialogue means moving forward once a majority has emerged. These are not minimum agreements (…) Therefore, I have asked the prefects, in accordance with the law, to initiate the procedure for requisitioning the personnel essential for the operation of this company’s warehouses.”

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Although these signatory unions are in majority representative terms, the agreement did not receive the support of the workerswho voted to continue the strike following calls from the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) and the Fuerza Obrera (FO).

These two union centrals demand a salary increase of 7.5% in total to recover the purchasing power lost due to inflation in 2022 and a bonus of 6,000 euros per employee on account of the exceptional benefits obtained by the world oil giant (17,900 million dollars in the second quarter alone).

For the Prime Minister, who said that “you have to know how to end a strike”, the administrative reopening is legitimate because “a salary disagreement does not justify blocking the country”.

The Executive has opted to treat differently the situation of the ExxonMobil refineries, in Notre Dame de Gravenchon (northwest) and Fos sur Mer (southeast), of the three TotalEnergies that are also stopped.

In this second case, TotalEnergies reiterated this Monday that it is open to address salary negotiations from this month of Octoberwhen they were scheduled in November, but that’s once the stoppages end.

The CGT claims the French group, which obtained 10,600 million dollars in profits in the first half, a salary increase of 10%. 7% to offset the effect of inflation and an additional 3% for the redistribution of benefits.

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Borne acknowledged that the supply situation at gas stations “is difficult”, with 30% of all stations in the country lacking at least one type of fuel, and “in some places it is unbearable.”

But he defended himself against the reproaches that accuse him of having started acting once the situation had gotten out of hand. And he assured that “the government has acted” by increasing imports or exceptionally allow the circulation of tank trucks on the weekend.

These salary protests by the personnel of two energy groups that are benefiting greatly from the current situation come at a time of discomfort in other sectors due to the loss of purchasing power of salaries due to the pull of inflation.

A malaise that already gave rise to a day of intersectoral strikes and demonstrations on September 29, organized by a part of the unions led by the CGT and that is going to translate into a demonstration next Saturday organized by opposition parties from lefts.

The fuel shortage for the refinery stoppages that began two weeks ago has led to a rise in prices at gas stations.

According to data updated this Monday by the Government, the average price of a liter of diesel has increased 23 cents since the end of September, up to 1.93 cents, and that of gasoline 16 cents, up to 1.68 euros.