While the secretary general of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, on Tuesday March 7 hailed a “historic mobilization” against the pension reform, reporting “20%” more demonstrators than during the day of January 31 which had brought together 1.27 million participants according to the authorities, several sectors have already announced new mobilizations in the coming days. L’Express takes stock of the affected sectors.
Transportation
Traffic will be disrupted again, Wednesday, March 8, at the SNCF as at the RATP. TGV and TER traffic, as well as metros and RERs, will be affected by the renewable strike planned by the unions against the pension reform project. In the metro, apart from lines 1 and 14 (automated) and 4 where traffic will be normal, the other lines will only offer between a quarter and a half of the usual service. Some will close earlier than usual, although they will generally also be open outside peak hours, unlike Tuesday.
The RATP has however announced an improvement in traffic, particularly in the RER and buses. The RER will thus experience more regular traffic with two out of three trains on the A and one out of two on the B. Buses and trams will run almost normally.
The RATP is also moving forward on Thursday March 9 and foresees a further improvement in traffic with a metro that would only be “disturbed”, an RER A running almost normally like buses and trams, but an RER B “very disturbed”.
On the SNCF side, traffic “will remain disrupted”. The railway company recommends that those who can reschedule or cancel their trips and favor teleworking. In detail, 1 out of 3 trains will run on average on the TVG Inoui network, 2 out of 5 trains on average on the North and East axes, 1 out of 4 TVG on the Atlantic axis and 2 out of 5 on the South-East axis. . From province to province, only 1 out of 10 TGVs will run. Concerning the OUIGO, 1 TGV out of 3 should circulate. On the side of the TER, it will be necessary to count on 1 train out of 3 on average. The Intercités will be even more impacted with “very strongly disturbed” traffic: 1 Intercité in 5 on average and no train at night.
The energy sector
The CGT claimed Tuesday afternoon to have control of 21,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity production at EDF, where nearly half of the employees were on strike. The strikers were responsible for a drop in production of some 13,000 MW on thermal and nuclear power stations, a “historic” level according to the union, equivalent to a dozen reactors, and blocked 8,000 MW of available power on the dams.
Strikers carried out wild cuts in Annonay (Ardèche), stronghold of Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt, as well as around Boulogne-sur-Mer and Périgueux, forcing the court to interrupt its hearings. Enedis announced that he was going to file a complaint.
A blockage could lead to delays in the maintenance of nuclear power plants: that of the Velaines site (Meuse), where parts are stored. Dams have also been erected in several industrial areas, in Lesquin near Lille, in Boulogne-sur-Mer, in Valenciennes or in Amiens, blocking or filtering trucks.
On the side of the refineries, “the renewable strike will be effective in all” of the French sites, “on all the imports”, estimated Emmanuel Lépine, CGT secretary of the federation of chemistry, during a general assembly Thursday . Fuel shipments were blocked on Tuesday at the exit of the seven refineries in France (TotalEnergies, Esso-ExxonMobil and Petroineos). If these blockages continued, they could lead to the shutdown of refineries, for lack of space to store the fuel produced, then to shortages in service stations, even if professionals considered this scenario still unlikely on Tuesday.
The secretary general of the CGT of electricians and gas, Sébastien Ménesplier, finally promised “a black week in energy”, with targeted cuts, blockages, occupations, and always “Robin Hood operations” for the population.
education
The seven main teachers’ unions called on February 14 for strikes to make it possible to “completely close schools, colleges, high schools and services” on March 7. The inter-union also called on staff “to mobilize on March 8, the international day of struggle for women’s rights, to denounce the major social injustice of this pension reform against women”.