A breathlessness of the social movement? This is what the executive wants. Tuesday, March 7, the unions took to the streets 1.28 million demonstrators according to the police, 3.5 million according to the CGT. But strike rates remained below record highs.
Two days later, strikes and bocages continue in different sectors, while the unions announced Tuesday evening two new days of mobilization to protest against the government’s pension reform project: Saturday March 11 and next week, probably Wednesday, March 15. Update on the situation this Thursday, March 9.
Refineries: shipments still blocked
Refineries and main oil depots in mainland France
© / afp.com/Sabrina BLANCHARD
Without creating a shortage at this stage, fuel shipments are still blocked this Thursday morning at the exit from the refineries of the TotalEnergies group in France. “The strike was renewed on all TotalEnergies sites this morning,” said Eric Sellini, national elected representative of the CGT-Chemistry union, which called for a renewable strike.
Fuel shipments are still blocked in TotalEnergies establishments in La Mède, Donges, the Normandy refinery, Feyzin and Flanders, but not production (except in Donges, stopped for technical reasons). At the Feyzin refinery, a hardening of the strike via a production stoppage had been mentioned, but for the moment, “the situation is unchanged”, affirmed Eric Sellini, specifying that “management seeks to avoid a complete stoppage “. On the Esso-ExxonMobil side, the “strike is also renewed at the Esso refinery in Fos-sur-mer”, with 70% of strikers, said the union official.
No more fuel leaves the French refineries on strike, but there are 200 depots in France which continue to supply the stations and the refineries themselves continue to produce fuel: gasoline and diesel which will have to order be stored on site, for lack of being able to leave.
It will take several days of blockage, if not weeks, before on-site reserves are full and require the actual shutdown of production for safety reasons. In the meantime, the vast majority of the 10,000 French stations are now full. About 6% of service stations ran out of gasoline or diesel on Wednesday, according to public data analyzed by AFP. The west of France is more affected than the national average, with around a quarter of the stations of Sarthe, Indre-et-Loire and Calvados lacking either petrol or diesel, according to the feedback from the stations available on the site fuel-prices.gouv.fr.
Transport: disruptions continue at SNCF
Traffic remains very disrupted at the SNCF, despite an improvement since Tuesday. One TGV Inoui and one Ouigo in three are running this Thursday. One in four Intercités trains is scheduled during the day, and those at night are canceled. Two out of five TER trains run on average. Traffic will also remain disrupted on Friday March 10, warned the SNCF.
In Paris, in public transport managed by the RATP, traffic improved on Wednesday and it is almost normal for buses and trams on Thursday. The metro is running better than Tuesday and Wednesday, with almost normal traffic this morning at least on lines 2, 4, 6, 9 and 11. Lines 3, 8, 10 and 13, however, remain very disrupted.
In the air, between 20 and 30% of flights are canceled this Thursday and Friday, like Tuesday and Wednesday, as requested by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC). Air France plans to operate this Thursday “nearly 8 out of 10 flights, including all of its long-haul flights”, but last-minute delays and cancellations “cannot be excluded”.
Gas: blockages but open gas pipelines
The supply of the French gas network (the gas pipelines managed by GRTgaz) to customers is maintained, but the volumes sent from the Storengy underground storage sites are now reduced “between 30 and 40%”, announced Wednesday to AFP Frédéric Ben, gas manager at CGT Energie, who had issued an ultimatum to this subsidiary of Engie managing most of the French reserves, in natural cavities. The company confirmed this to AFP, but assured that customers are not affected at this time.
No more liquefied natural gas (LNG) has been unloaded from ships since Tuesday, the country’s four port LNG terminals being blocked by strikers. Gas continues to arrive by pipeline from Norway or Spain.
Universities: blockages in around thirty establishments
Blockages, often partial, took place in several higher education establishments on Wednesday, before the day of mobilization and youth action organized this Thursday. The student union L’Alternative has blockages this Thursday in about fifteen establishments including the universities of Grenoble and Lille 2 as well as several institutes of political studies and national schools of architecture.
Garbage collectors: a strike that hits Paris
Trash cans are starting to pile up in several districts of Paris, where 35% of municipal garbage collectors were on strike on Wednesday according to Régis Vieceli, general secretary of the CGT cleaning union (FTDNEEA), as well as in Niort.