Given the blockade situation in several fuel depots despite the agreements signed with the management, the government has decided to launch the last weapon of requisition.
Enough to allow the prefects to force some of the striking employees to return to work when they believe that a strike creates a threat to public order or to the needs of the population.
This measure, as rare as it is radical, was already applied in France in 2010 for the same refinery employees.
That year, France was paralyzed by strikes against pension reform. Transport is stopped, all fuel tanks are blocked. By order of the government of Nicolas Sarkozy, the prefects then launched requisitions. These had been challenged in court and some prefectural rulings were later annulled.
legal challenges
Thus, the administrative court of Melun had considered that, by “requisitioning practically all the personnel of the Total de Grandpuits refinery with a view not only to supplying fuel to priority vehicles, but also to supplying petroleum products of all kinds to all the client refinery facilities”, and not just to provide a “minimum service”, the prefect had carried out a “serious and manifestly illegal attack on the right to strike”.
At the same time, other bodies had validated the procedures such as the requisition of the TotalEnergies warehouse in Gargenville en Yvelines that supplies Roissy airport. At that time, the airfield only had three days of fuel left.
Still, for the unions, the requisition is not acceptable. In addition to the actions before the French courts, in 2010 a procedure was initiated with the International Labor Organization (ILO).
The institution had not followed the complainants, believing that this forced minimum service could be justified, but had pointed out the lack of consultation in the application of the decision.
Source: BFM TV
