French President Emmanuel Macron convened a crisis meeting with high-ranking ministers on Monday to address strikes at gas refineries that have caused fuel pumps to run out.
Macron on Monday declared his desire for a solution “as soon as possible” to the protests, promising to “do his utmost” to find one, according to BFMTV, an affiliate of the CNN .
The government has ordered strikers at two fuel depots in Feyzin, near Lyon, to return to work for several hours or face criminal charges, according to French Energy Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher.
Lyon is one of the hardest-hit regions in the country, with nearly 40% of gas stations running out of at least one fuel on Sunday.
Elsewhere, nearly a third of gas stations have run out of at least one fuel, with the situation predicted to worsen this week, according to French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.
This is the second time in recent weeks that the French government has taken the unusual step of requisitioning essential workers in the face of weeks-long strikes at refineries owned by ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies that have disrupted supplies to thousands of gas stations.
While ExxonMobil workers agreed to end the lockdown at the Fos-sur-Mer refinery and depot in southern France late last week after wage negotiations, strikes continue at TotalEnergies’ refineries.
One of France’s largest unions, CGT, refused to accept the terms of a salary agreement agreed between TotalEnergies and two other unions, CFE-CGC and CFDT. The agreement includes a 7% salary increase for 2023 and a bonus for all employees equivalent to one month’s salary.
The CGT demanded a 10% salary increase.
The refinery worker shutdowns, which have affected most of France’s refineries, have left nearly a third of the country’s gas stations running short, according to government data.
But French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the strikes were “unacceptable and illegitimate” because wage agreements were met with most workers. “The time for negotiations has passed,” he added.
In an interview with France Inter radio, a representative of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, claimed that “thousands” of workers were still on strike, contradicting government ministers who referred to the striking workers as “a handful of workers” and “hundreds of people”. in interviews.
Transport Minister Clement Beaune told France Inter that the only way out of the crisis is an end to strikes.
Meanwhile, passengers could face days of travel chaos if planned strikes on Paris’ public transport network and parts of the national rail network continue.
Beaune said that in the worst-affected regions, only one in two trains will be running on Tuesday.
The industrial action comes against a backdrop of rising cost of living in France, where electricity bills are rising as a result of a cut in Russian natural gas supplies that have sparked an energy crisis in Europe.
On Sunday, thousands marched through central Paris to protest the crisis and “climate inaction”.
Source: CNN Brasil
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