Dry pumps, but until when?
12% of petrol stations in France are experiencing “difficulties with at least one type of fuel” at the pump, with variable situations depending on the region, Hauts-de-France being the most affected with around 30% of stations, a said government spokesman Olivier Véran on Wednesday.
For Thierry Defresne, CGT secretary of the European works council of TotalEnergies, "employees exercise a completely legal and constitutional right: the right to strike", he said this Friday morning on RMC.
A strike movement has been underway for about ten days within the oil company, in an attempt to obtain a wage increase.
“We are asking for a 10% salary increase this year” as well as “the hiring of our precarious colleagues”, Thierry Defresne unfolded, pointing to the increase in “superprofits” made by TotalEnergies.
“We give a lot to the shareholders but we forget the employees”, he continued, believing that the strike should continue “over time”.
According to the group, this situation of localized shortage is also explained by "the fall in prices" in its stations - a discount at the pump of 20 euro cents per liter - which has led to "a significant influx", since fuels are cheaper there.
Better "in two or three days"?
The government wants to be reassuring and ensures that the situation should improve quickly.
Olivier Véran even challenged the term "shortage" of fuel, preferring to evoke "tensions" in the supply of certain stations, and calling on motorists to avoid "the panic effect".
Read alsoShortage of fuel at service stations: “They have to fill the tanks before it turns into chaos”
“We are in the process of improving the situation, it will take two or three days a priori.
On the basis of what oil tankers can repatriate from Belgium and from Rouen, and to facilitate things we are releasing part of our strategic stocks, ”assured Thursday evening on BFMTV the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
She also called on “everyone to take their responsibilities: staff representatives and managers of these companies”, referring in particular to TotalEnergies.
