Two firefighters were injured and two people arrested Monday, November 15 in Guadeloupe during the first day, punctuated by incidents, of an unlimited general strike against the vaccination obligation and the health pass, we learned from a union source and to the prosecution. Clashes pitted striking firefighters and gendarmes, who charged before being targeted by jets of water hoses handled by firefighters. Other incidents between strikers and the police gave rise to two police custody for "repeated threats to a law enforcement officer," said the Pointe-à-Pitre prosecutor's office.
Maïté Hubert M'Toumo, general secretary of the General Union of Workers of Guadeloupe (UGTG), a very influential union on the island, described these arrests as “provocation”. She denounced in a press release "a serious attack on a fundamental freedom that is the right to strike" and called on "all members and activists to strengthen the picket lines". At the call of the union, employees of several establishments in the medico-social sector went on strike, said the UGTG in a second press release, as well as employees of many hotels while the tourist season is underway. Throughout the day, more or less ephemeral dams were erected.
Several gas stations were closed by protesters, and many motorists stormed those that remained open for fear the strike would impact fuel supplies.
"The small minority which tries to instrumentalize this situation increases the pressure and faced with that, it is necessary to be very firm", warned Tuesday on France Inter the spokesman of the government Gabriel Attal.
"We will not accept that we prevent people from going for treatment at the hospital, we will not accept that there is pressure being put on people who have made the choice or who are going make the choice to be vaccinated ”,
