Scholarships: holiday of energy workers and “Robin Hood” actions in preparation for January 31
The action will be partially extended on Friday at the call of the CGT Mining and Energy Federation, which has resumed since January 19 and called for a 48-hour mobilization.
CGT central representative Benjamin Tange told AFP that it was also planned to continue for two days at the refineries, but was suspended at the TotalEnergies sites on Thursday.
The goal: self-preservation and preparing the ground for Tuesday’s national holiday. Called by all trade unions, it will affect all sectors: schools, civil servants, transport, services… One of them, UNSA, has identified more than 200 meeting places, as for the 19th day.
“Workers on the move say it would be better to get off to a good start on Tuesday,” CGT TotalEnergies manager Eric Cellini said earlier in the day.
At the same time, energy agents have implemented a series of so-called “Robin Hood” measures to “strengthen the balance of power” in the fight against pension reform, according to the CGT.
From Lille to Marseilles and all over France, they have “installed free electricity or gas” in schools, public houses and hospitals, given concessional rates to small businesses and restored electricity to users without it.
– Suspended Ports –
“This is certainly a first in a coordinated way throughout the territory,” the CGT warned to AFP Fabrice Coudour, federal secretary of the Federation of Mines and Energy, “just the beginning” of such actions.
The CGT’s National Federation of Ports and Docks also reported in a press release “a strong mobilization of workers in almost all French ports, with frequent strikers and 100% complete shutdown of the ports.”
Gwenaël Plagne, representative of the CGT union at the Cordemais factory, emphasized: “The will of today’s action is to show that the balance of power has gone up a notch and that we can go to the point of paralysis of the country if we want” (Loire-Atlantique).
EDF said it lost up to 1,700 MW of power at its hydraulic park, the equivalent of several nuclear reactors, before returning to normal in the afternoon. The company did not want to disclose the figures on the scale of the mobilization.
RTE’s manager of high and very high voltage lines confirmed to AFP that “the outages occurred this afternoon but did not affect the security of the electricity supply”.
– Robin Hood –
Emmanuel Macron’s reform, opposed by all trade unions and coming to parliament on Monday, would lead to the abolition of special regimes at EDF or Engie (formerly GDF Suez).
Paris Mayor (PS) Ann Hidalgo announced on Thursday that she had joined the call by PCF boss Fabien Roussel to symbolically close town halls on January 31 in solidarity with the mobilization against the pension reform.
As of Wednesday, the CGT has claimed blackouts of wind and solar farms in the Montluçon sector as well as in the industrial zone of Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne) on Thursday morning. Enedis, who will complain, said that the incident was resolved quickly.
In October, fuel was blocked from being transported to warehouses at oil refineries, where a major wage strike caused a nationwide gasoline shortage, with the usual slogan: “Nothing in, nothing out.”
This was particularly the case in the bio-refinery of La Mede (Bouches-du-Rhône) or Donges (Loire-Atlantique), with between 60% and 100% of attackers, “50-70%”. from the attackers. They were still around 80% at the Normandy refinery this afternoon and 30% at the Grandpuits site (Seine-et-Marne), which is in conversion and no longer carrying fuel.
“Before the 31st, a great day to expand the movement and fight for common interests,” concludes Fabrice Coudour.
bur-ngu-cla/uh/lpa
