For the 8th day of mobilization against the pension reform, this Wednesday, March 15, and while the joint joint commission has begun its work, strikes continue in the energy sector and among Parisian garbage collectors, but seem to be running out of steam in the oil and transport sector. A refinery has lifted the strike near Marseille, according to the CGT. L’Express takes stock of the mobilization as the first processions gather throughout France.
Garbage collectors in Paris: Darmanin requests the requisition
Garbage collectors and cleaners from the City of Paris voted Tuesday to continue the strike “at least until March 20”, while some 7,000 tonnes of waste are already piling up in the streets of the capital. The Minister of the Interior has asked the town hall to requisition garbage collectors. The mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo replied, saying she did not have “the power” to requisition the garbage collectors on strike and “does not intend to ask” the State to act in this direction.
The most affected sectors are the ten arrondissements whose collection is ensured by the agents of the town hall. But, even in those managed by private service providers, collection is disrupted due to the unavailability of the three incineration plants: those of Ivry-sur-Seine and Issy-les-Moulineaux are blocked by the strike and that of Saint-Ouen is undergoing maintenance.
Collection was also disrupted on Tuesday in Rennes, Rouen, Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d’Armor), Nantes, as well as in Seine-Maritime.
Energy: electricians and gas operators are mobilized
The electricity sector remains highly mobilized given the crucial issue for electricians and gas operators, who, in addition to the decline in the legal age, fear the abolition of their special pension scheme. On Tuesday, nuclear, thermal and hydraulic power plants experienced production cuts, in addition to punch actions, such as at the Enedis headquarters in Limoges, access to which was still blocked Tuesday evening by trucks.
On the gas side, the four French LNG terminals have voted to renew their strike action until the beginning of next week and all the Storengy gas storage sites should be occupied and on strike “at least until the end of the week”, according to CGT Energie, without consequences at this stage for customers.
Refineries are marking time
Several French refineries are still on strike on Wednesday morning: “in those of Donges, La Mède and Fos, the movement is renewed with a halt to shipments,” Eric Sellini, CGT coordinator for the sector, told AFP. “On that of Normandy, the employees are still on strike but there are shipments” and at the Petroineos refinery in Lavera, “the employees are not on strike this morning and the shipments will resume”, he specified. .
“The fact that the crude oil import depots are also on strike, essential links since that’s where all the crude oil goes, is starting to create disruptions for the refineries that are still operating,” said Eric Sellini. , specifying that the crude import depot in Le Havre “is on strike 8 hours out of 12, and that of Fos-sur-Mer since yesterday”.
Eric Sellini thus indicated that the Gravenchon-Port-Jérôme refinery (Esso) “has been stopped because the oil depot in Le Havre no longer sends them crude, so they have been forced to stop half of the installations because they do not have more crude oil to process”. The CGT manager communicated only one rate of strikers, 100% at the Flanders depot. TotalEnergies had 42% of operators in the first quarter on strike on Wednesday, against 36% the day before.
For several days, the oil unions have been proposing to the refinery strikers to harden the movement by stopping production, but the latter are reluctant to begin these technically delicate and long operations.
Contrasting situation in transport
At the SNCF, traffic remains disrupted and traffic on Wednesday will be similar to that of Monday and Tuesday, with in particular 3 TGV Inoui and Ouigo out of 5, 1 Intercity out of 3, no night train and 2 TER out of 5 on national average and difficulties in Ile-de-France. On March 7, 80% of TGVs had been canceled.
The RATP expects slightly disrupted traffic in the Paris metro and very disrupted in the RER, overall much better than during the first days of the strikes.
In the air, the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) asked airlines to cancel 20% of their flights at Paris-Orly on Wednesday due to a strike by air traffic controllers. Cancellations are thus expected to be fewer than last week, when they had affected, in addition to the Parisian platforms of Orly and Roissy, airports in the region, and affected up to 30% of aircraft movements.
Lockdowns are also in place in the country. Drivers completely blocked Wednesday all access to the A26 motorway, in the north, between Calais and Thérouanne. A few dozen demonstrators prevented early Wednesday entry to the headquarters of the shipping company CMA-CGM in Marseille.