Two trade unionists of the CGT Energy will be tried in November for having cut electricity in early April to some 22,000 homes in Bordeaux (Gironde) during a mobilization against the pension reform, we learned Friday from the prosecutor's office. They were placed under judicial control with a ban on demonstrations, in accordance with the prosecutor's request.
On Wednesday, five trade unionists were arrested in the early morning in Gironde at their home and placed in custody as part of an investigation for "degradation in meeting", "violence with breach of an obligation of prudence and safety". One of them was also accused of having entered a public electricity network "without authorization".
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Three of the trade unionists had had their custody lifted on Thursday evening without being prosecuted, and the other two were referred to the criminal court.
"Criminalizing trade union action"
"Our comrades have been wrongfully imprisoned for political reasons: that of criminalizing trade union action and intimidating the will to continue the mobilization against the pension reform," wrote the departmental union of the CGT in Gironde in a statement. "The judicial control and limitations on their freedoms pronounced until their trial in November thus seem to us to belong more to the register of political sanction," says the union.
On April 4, a power cut caused by demonstrators against the pension reform had deprived Bordeaux station and 22,000 homes in the city center of electricity, according to the SNCF and the network operator RTE. The demonstrators had occupied an RTE office, interrupting the power supply of the station and the surrounding district. Tracks and train traffic were not affected. The courthouse and a hospital had also seen their activities disrupted.
The CGT Energy had claimed the "energy sobriety of the Saint-Jean station, as well as part of the district" as part of an "interprofessional action". Since the beginning of the conflict, strikers in the sector have increased their power cuts in France.
