On Saturday, three of the six French refineries were still closed, according to the CGT: TotalEnergies’ largest refinery, in Normandy, as well as the two French refineries of the US-based Esso-ExxonMobil.
“We are about 70% strikers,” said Christophe Aubert, CGT elect at ExxonMobil, “this is the same workforce all weekend, so it shouldn’t move and nothing comes out of it.”
In addition, at the TotalEnergies refinery in Feyzin (Rhône), “there were 100% strikers in the dispatch service at 6:00 am,” Pedro Afonso, elected CGT, told AFP. “Normally there are 250 to 300 trucks a day and 30 to 50 railcars. Nothing comes out,” he added, even though the refinery continues to produce.
mass mobilization
In the French energy company, in addition to its Normandy refinery, strikers have mobilized en masse in recent days at the Flanders fuel depot, near Dunkirk (North), at the La Mède “bio-refinery” (Bouches -du-Rhône) and at the Grandpuits fuel depot (Seine-et-Marne) in particular, to limit the outflow of oil products as much as possible, according to the CGT.
However, the Grandpuits fuel depot is not operational on weekends, according to TotalEnergies.
Striker lockouts lead to lower fuel deliveries, so gas stations often run out of stocks of gasoline or diesel. TotalEnergies manages almost a third of the French stations.
But the group also puts the inconvenience on account of the success of the discount at the pump of 20 cents that it grants since September 1, in addition to the State bonus of 30 cents.
Source: BFM TV
