“We are going to see those who want the reform, who support it, those, we are going to take care of them,
threatened the boss of the CGT Mines-Energies, Sébastien Menesplier, on January 16.
We are going to see them in their hotlines, we are going to talk to them, and then if by chance they do not understand the world of work, we will target them in the cuts that we will be able to organize”.
The trade unionist then retracted, but a few power cuts accrediting his initial threat punctuated the “day of action” of January 19.
Speaking in turn, the secretary general of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, assured that parliamentarians would not be targeted by power cuts, while considering, to give satisfaction to his base,
billionaires”.
Isolated incidents to date, therefore.
Martinez seems to be trying to contain the bellicose ardor of the striking electricians because he knows that targeting elected officials would tip over into the government camp the legitimist part of public opinion, which would not accept such procedures.
But this call to order - or this role play - between the management of the CGT and its energy federation proves that the temptation to cut the current is indeed present and its use discussed among the CGT militants of EDF.
Massive and spectacular
In fact, during the first major labor disputes between electricians in Paris between 1905 and 1910, power cuts were used massively and spectacularly by the strikers.
This episode was emblematic of the revolutionary syndicalism in favor in the years preceding the Great War.
And his memory has endured in the very special environment of the CGT electricians of EDF, unique even within their trade union confederation.
At the dawn of the 20th century, electricity was already omnipresent in Paris and essential to its life.
The electricity fairy allowed the factories – then numerous in the capital – to operate, the trams and the first metros to run.
At nightfall, the street lamps, formerly lit by gas, are now electric.
The French authorities of the time were so proud of such modernity that, for the Universal Exhibition of 1900, a “Palace of Electricity” was built on the Champ de Mars.
In this building, illuminated at night by thousands of incandescent lamps, the public is presented with all that this source of energy will change in the country's economy and daily life.
But the electrical workers are unhappy…
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