The government is trying to plug the loopholes as best it can. While the requisitions remain in the refineries of TotalEnergies in Gonfreville-l’Orcher, near Le Havre (Seine-Maritime) and Donges (Loire-Atlantique), the incinerators should operate a return (almost) to normal. In terms of fuel, the situation remains tense in certain departments in the south and west of the country. On the eve of a new week of mobilization, the anger against the pension reform does not dry up.
Requisitions in refineries and oil depots
The administrative court of Rouen rejected, this Sunday, March 26, the request for interim relief from the CGT contesting the legality of the requisitions of strikers from the TotalEnergies refinery of Gonfreville-l’Orcher (Seine-Maritime) operated Friday by the prefecture. In his order, consulted by AFP, the administrative judge considered that the decree of the prefect of Seine-Maritime “does not appear manifestly prejudicial to the right to strike recognized and protected by the convention of the International Labor Organization” .
In this refinery, four employees in charge of the delivery of kerosene were requisitioned. This should allow the supply of Paris airports, deemed “critical” by the Ministry of Energy Transition. According to administrative justice, the state of kerosene reserves at Paris Roissy airport only authorized “reasonable operation” for three days. The airport would then not have been able to “maintain air traffic which prevents disturbances of public order linked to the massive presence of passengers deprived of flights”, which risked “causing uncertainties likely to impact air safety “.
In the Donges refinery (in Loire-Atlantique), the general assembly of employees voted on Friday March 24 to continue the strike on the oil site until Tuesday March 28, 2023. In total, six employees made the object of a requisition. “Three employees are requisitioned to send fuel by pipeline to Vern-sur-Seiche”, a fuel depot near Rennes, for the afternoon shift, CFDT delegate Adrien Vaugrenard told AFP on Friday. The gendarmes came knocking on the door of three employees on Friday morning “to go and requisition them, to go and turn the valves”, for his part explained Fabien Privé Saint-Lanne, the CGT delegate. At the same time, three other employees already present in the refinery were requisitioned until the end of the morning shift.
On Friday March 24, the police also intervened to unblock two oil depots: in Port-la-Nouvelle (Aude), which had been blocked since March 16, and in Frontignan (Hérault). In the south of France, the requisitions of “three employees per shift” have been extended to the Fos oil depot and the trucks resupply the department’s service stations.
Fuels: departments still very affected
About 15% of service stations were out of at least one fuel this Friday morning, according to public data analyzed by AFP. In the nine most affected departments, between two and five out of ten service stations are dry. These are Loire-Atlantique, Morbihan, Mayenne, Maine-et-Loire, Ille-et-Vilaine, Ariège, Bouches-du-Rhône, Hérault and du Var, according to these data.
The situation remains tense in the south of France and in the Bouches-du-Rhône in particular. On Saturday March 25, the prefecture issued a new decree to requisition service stations “for the supply of fuel to certain priority vehicles”. For their part, our colleagues from the local branch of France 3 report that 42% of stations in the department are out of stock on at least one fuel.
Incinerators: back to normal?
Two of the three incineration plants treating waste in Paris reopened on Friday morning after a two-and-a-half-week strike against the pension reform, requisitions being underway in the third, the metropolitan union Syctom reported to AFP .
“The employees of Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis) and Issy have voted the end of the social movement and the factories are unblocked”, even if the factory of Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine ) was the subject in the morning of a “little filtering, subject to personnel outside the factory”, affirmed Syctom. As for the third site, the most important, in Ivry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne), “the requisition of the operator’s employees” was “in progress” in the middle of the afternoon, had declared Syctom at AFP. The incinerator will be put back into service gradually.
The CGT for its part filed a strike notice for the garbage collectors of the dumpster garage of the waste collection company Derichebourg, located in La Courneuve (Seine-Saint-Denis), from this Sunday evening and for an indefinite period. , according France Blue. This news should disrupt waste collection in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 10th, and 18th arrondissements of Paris, managed by this private service provider. Boroughs so far spared by the garbage collectors’ strike.