After three weeks of strike, a wage increase deemed too low by the CGT and a lackluster national mobilization for wages on Tuesday, the strikers at the oil sites of TotalEnergies will have to decide this Wednesday whether to continue or expand their movement.
At the end of the day of strikes and demonstrations throughout the country on Tuesday, the CGT proposed the "renewal of the movement" of the refineries initiated on September 27 until this Wednesday at midday, when hold new general meetings.
At TotalEnergies, still five sites mobilized
On the sites of TotalEnergies, the path of a continuation of the movement seems privileged.
The renewal was voted massively in Gonfreville, in Seine-Maritime, according to Emmanuel Letetu, elected CSE of the CGT, and Pierre-Yves Hauguel, CGT delegate.
As expected, the strikers also voted this Wednesday morning to renew the Gonfreville refinery in Normandy, said CGT Total Normandy secretary general Alexis Antonioli.
The strike movement at the call of the CGT in the refineries and depots still concerned this Wednesday morning the refineries of Donges (Loire-Atlantique) and La Mède (Bouches-du-Rhône), as well as the depots of Feyzin, in the Rhône (the depot, the refinery being shut down for technical reasons) and the Flanders depot (North), according to information provided by Éric Sellini, national coordinator of the CGT for refineries.
Read alsoEnergy: new call for a strike, wage agreement… will the mobilization last in the refineries?
According to Olivier Mateu, CGT departmental secretary of Bouches-du-Rhône, "nothing is decided" for the future.
“It is the employees who will decide”, also notes Éric Sellini.
Many union elected officials must participate this Wednesday morning by videoconference in a national meeting where each section must decide and a decision be taken concerning a call for a general strike, said Olivier Mateu.
“It is at the national level that this question
(of salaries)
must be dealt with, because we are in a very special situation”, added Éric Sellini, while many are asking for an indexation of salary increases on inflation.
Increases in the energy sector?
In total, 107,000 people demonstrated this Tuesday in France according to the Ministry of the Interior, "nearly 300,000" according to the CGT.
During the previous day of the same type, the CGT had counted fewer participants (250,000), but the Interior more (118,500).
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In the rest of the energy sector, the CGT signed a branch agreement on Tuesday with FO and the CFDT on increases in the gas and electricity industries (IEG).
This is a first step for the opening of wage negotiations in good and due form in the 157 companies concerned, including EDF and Engie.
At TotalEnergies, which is part of the chemical sector within professional organizations, the CGT did not sign the salary agreement concluded on Friday between the management and the two majority unions, the CFE-CGC and the CFDT.
The agreement provides for a general increase of 5% in wages, accompanied by individual increases and an exceptional bonus of between 3,000 and 6,000 euros.
The CGT demanded 10% to compensate for inflation and take advantage of the exceptional income earned by the group in 2021.
