Seventh day of mobilization in France against the pension reform and the disturbances continue. A third of TGV and TER trains run. The Paris metro remains very disrupted. Fuel shipments are blocked leaving refineries, which also affects ports. Those of Le Havre, Rouen and Marseille-Fos are concerned, but also that of Saint-Nazaire, in the west of the country.
With our special correspondent in Saint-Nazaire, Alexis Bedu
Blockades in front of all the terminals, mounds of tires and coal on fire, and the striking dockers who have been talking around since very early in the morning.
Impossible to circulate in the area, and above all, no goods enter or leave the port of Saint-Nazaire. This will be the case until at least Thursday evening.
While the movement against pension reform hardens, some transport is idling, these renewable strikes in strategic sectors aim to affect the country’s economy, explain some unions.
Sébastien Menesplier is secretary general of the Mines Énergie CGT federation on the picket line this Wednesday morning March 8 in Saint-Nazaire in western France.
We announced a black week in energy, and we are there. We have reached a milestone, there are many actions that are being carried out in the production plants, in the LNG terminals, in the gas storages… Which means that for seven days no terminals, storages which will drop , I’m sure I forgot. There are occupations of strategic sites, there are targeted cuts, in short, the agents are ready for anything anyway.
Sébastien Menesplier, Secretary General of the National Federation of Mines and Energy CGT
Stunned by the attitude of the government
The flare burns on the LNG terminal, a sign that the site is shut down. In orange raincoat, they are the crane operators of the agro-food terminal. The strike lasts, they know it, and they are prepared for it.
On the side of the refinery, the same atmosphere. Not a drop will come out by Friday. And if the government does not withdraw its reform, the strikers do not make much mystery about what will happen: the continuation of strikes and other blockages, which could quickly cause tensions in the supply.
Their goal now is to push the economic world to challenge the Elysée. The strikers are stunned by the attitude of the government, which for the moment remains deaf to their demands.
They hope that the blockages will increase. This is the moment when we enter the hard, slipped us a trade unionist for whom it is necessary, at all costs, that this movement leads to a victory. Otherwise, he says, it will be very difficult to mobilize in the future.
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