PETROL STRIKE. While two TotalEnergies sites are still on strike this Friday, October 21, the tension weighing on petrol stations is decreasing. The Prime Minister even said that the French can go on vacation “confident”.
[Mis à jour le 21 octobre 2022 à 11h03] Soon the end of the strike? This Friday, October 21, only two sites of the TotalEnergies group are still shut down. The movement was renewed this Thursday, October 20 in the morning for the site of Gonfreville, in Seine-Maritime which includes a refinery and a depot. On this site, the strike will continue until October 27, date on which Total will publish its results for the third quarter, explains France info. The strike also continues at the depot of Feyzin, in the Rhône, where personnel requisitions were carried out. On this site, the CGT reports 100% strikers. The other TotalEnergies sites have not been on strike since Wednesday, October 19: the blockages have been lifted in Merdyck (Nord), La Mède (Bouches-du-Rhône) and Donges (Loire-Atlantique). Sign of the fatigue of the movement, the refineries of Esso-ExxonMobil have resumed their activities since last week.
Shortness of movement does not rhyme with immediate return to normal. However, the Prime Minister wants to be reassuring. In an interview with Release this Thursday, October 20, Elisabeth Borne tried to reassure the French on this weekend of departure on All Saints’ vacation. “90% of motorway stations will operate normally” on the evening of Friday, October 21, she assured. The French will therefore be able to leave “confident” even if “the situation will not be 100% settled for departures on vacation” nuanced the head of government. It is true that the figures communicated by the State show an improvement in recent days. Thursday, October 20, 16.9% of gas stations were in shortage of fuel against more than 28% on Monday. Some regions are still above the national average, such as Burgundy – Franche-Comté with 29% of stations in short supply or dry. The figures for this Friday, October 21 are not yet known.
The Vinci Autoroute group also wants to be optimistic before the All Saints holidays which begin this Friday evening. According to the group, 90% of the service stations in its network can provide fuel to motorists, as relays France info. To speed up deliveries to the stations, the government requisitioned employees in Feyzin.
The Prime Minister also clarified that the prospect of a return to normal would be “in the days to come”. Indeed, if the end of the movement will release the already refined fuel, the recommissioning of a refinery takes about five to ten days. Thus, the refineries of Esso-ExxonMobil, which lifted the strike last week, are once again starting to be operational to refine fuel, before it is distributed. Complications at gas stations should last at least another good week.
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Metropolitan France has seven refineries on its territory. Currently, two of them, all belonging to Total, are at a standstill due to a strike action linked to demands for wage negotiations (see below). The list of sites on strike:
TotalEnergies Group:
- Gonfreville-l’Orcher (Seine-Maritime);
- Feyzin (Rhone).
After a vote on Wednesday, October 19, the CGT declared the end of the strike at the TotalEnergies refinery in Donges, in Loire-Atlantique, followed, a few hours later, by the sites of La Mède (Bouches-du-Rhône) and that of Flanders (North). The strike in the Esso-ExxonMobil group was lifted a week ago. The Port-Jérôme (Seine-Maritime) and Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône) refineries are working again. Note that the Lavéra refinery (Bouches-du-Rhône) was not affected by the strike. It indeed belongs to a third company, Petroineos, a group of the British Ineos and the Chinese Petrochina.
The strikers, who are employees working for refineries and fuel depots of TotalEnergies, are demanding increases in their pay. “The requests have existed since March 2022. We have already been told that we were going to open negotiations, first before the summer and then, in September. For the oil branch, it was decided to apply on January 1 We have a huge loss of purchasing power, like everyone else, for 2022. What we are asking for is already a catch-up for 2022 and an increase for 2023″, declared Emmanuel Lépine on RMC on Monday October 10. . “If we start negotiations, it will be on the basis of our demands: we are asking for a 10% increase in wages, applied on January 1 and retroactive to the year 2022” abounds in The Parisian Eric Sellini, CGT coordinator at TotalEnergies.
TotalEnergies has however already indicated that the negotiations “will make it possible to define how employees will be able to benefit, before the end of the year, from the exceptional results generated by TotalEnergies, while also taking into account inflation for the year 2022”. In the first half of this year, TotalEnergies, which operates about one in three service stations in France, earned $10.6 billion in profit. It should also be noted that a majority agreement was signed between the unions and the management of TotalEnergies on the revaluation of wages.
It took two weeks of strikes in the refineries of the TotalEnergies group for the first negotiations to be organised. The discussions did not bear fruit immediately and a second round of negotiations was necessary to find an agreement between the company and some unions. The CFDT and the CFE-CGT, which are in the majority and together represent 56% of Total employees, accepted a compromise on the night of October 13 to 14. Before ratifying the agreement which provides for a 7% salary increase from November 2022 and a bonus of 3,000 to 6,000 euros, the unions must speak with their members to find out if they agree to sign the agreement.
The CGT for its part refused the agreement proposed by Total, judging the proposals “largely insufficient”. Note that the CGT demands the revaluation of wages up to 10%. The compromise is therefore a “masquerade” according to the CGT general secretary of the TotalEnergies Normandy platform, Alexis Antonioli, who adds that “these unions who would come to sign an agreement at a discount, it will not change anything in the mobilization, it will not change anything to the spirit and determination of the strikers”.
Legally, the government has the right to requisition. To do this, the executive relies on two decrees. At the national level, this is article 2141-3 of the defense code, which provides that the government has “the right to subject, to control and distribution, energy resources, raw materials, products manufacturers and products necessary for the supply and, for this purpose, to impose on natural or legal persons in their property, the essential constraints”. At the local level, article 2215-3 of the general code of local authorities indicates that the prefect may, “in emergency, when the observed or foreseeable breach of good order, health, tranquility and public security so requires”, requisition “any property or service, require any person necessary for the operation of this service” until “the breach of public order has ended or the conditions for its continuation are assured”.
The requisition of refineries and depots is a radical solution which is not to the liking of the striking employees, but the government justifies it by the need not to “let the country be blocked”. On this subject, the head of the oil branch of the CGT, Emmanuel Lépine, indicated on RMC be “aware of the negative impact”. And to add: “The cause of this situation is the immobility of the management of the oil companies, ExxonMobil and Total. The employees no longer have confidence in the promises. negotiations and proposals, before ending the strike.”
It is likely that shortages at service stations will last several more days, experts in logistics specific to the distribution of fuel consider that a return to normal is unlikely before October 24, 2022. The Minister of Transport indicated the October 17 that a return to normal should not be expected before the week of October 24.
Where to find gasoline in France?
Linternaute offers you a map listing all the service stations with fuel, in order to have a view of the delivery points. This map, built on reliable public data, is updated in real time.
To influence the negotiations and public opinion, the management of TotalEnergies posted a press release to make public the levels of remuneration of employees. According to Total, refinery operators – workers, supervisors only – receive 5,000 euros per month, including profit-sharing and participation, on average over the year 2022. Figures disputed by CGT TotalEnergies trade unionists: with BFMTV, these advance salary levels around 2100 euros gross “on hiring”. On this sensitive issue, Germinal Lancelin, Secretary General of CGT ExxonMobil Chimie, gave details on BFMTV: “The hiring salary of an operator is 2120 euros gross. To this can be added bonuses if the person makes “shifts”. 4300 or 4500 euros, it is the salary of a department head at the end of his career or a shift supervisor with 20 years of seniority”.
TotalEnergies also indicates that while the group’s profits have been significant in recent months, employees have been rewarded for their contribution. “These same employees benefited in 2022 from an average profit-sharing in the company’s results of 9,108 euros, with a minimum amount of 7,250 euros” can we read in the press release from TotalEnergies.