Social conflict between refinery employees and their management bogs down. And the turn it took, with the requisitions initiated by the government, Wednesday and Thursday, does not happen with many unions. In response, the calls for a strike, for the day of Tuesday, October 18, spread like wildfire in many sectors of the economy.
Two SNCF unions on strike
The CGT-Cheminots drew first, releasing a strike call for next week on Thursday. The first representative union of the SNCF intends to demand salary increases. He also wants to protest against the requisitions launched by the government in the energy sector to end the strike of refinery employees.
The same story in Sud-Rail that announced in the wake of joining the mobilization. The union calls for “an increase in wages at SNCF”, opposes the government’s requisition of strikers from TotalEnergies and Esso-ExxonMobil and calls for “the broadening of the mobilization on wages and purchasing power”.
Mobilized road carriers
Transport federation CGT announced Thursday that it would join the movement.
The RATP also
The CGT RATP also calls a day of strike and mobilization in Ile-de-France on Tuesday, October 18, said Vincent Gautheron, general secretary of the majority union, at the microphone of France information.
CGT general strike call
But it is all the sectors where the CGT is represented that should join the strike. guest on BFM-TVthe leader of the CGT Philippe Martínez, indicated, this Thursday morning, calling to “amplify these strike movements.”
“We are going to propose that there be a new call for strikes and mobilizations next week in all companies, in the public and private sectors. Tuesday is on the table. All the unions of the professional associations call for strikes on Tuesday. ,” he continued.
It is therefore an interprofessional general strike that is looming for the day of Tuesday, October 18.
Nuclear power plants also affected
Driven by the mobilization in the refineries, the strike movement that began at the end of September in several specific nuclear power plants will intensify. Indeed, the National Federation of Mining and Energy (FNME-CGT) has called for “the extension of the strike in all energy companies” in a press release published this Thursday morning Twitter.
“The FNME-CGT, with its unions, will promote and coordinate the national interprofessional strike, at the call of the CGT, on Tuesday, October 18,” concludes the federation.
For two weeks now, the unions have renewed the strike of the maintenance staff every day in several closed or partially closed plants: in Cattenom, Tricastin, Cruas, Bugey and in Gravelines, the most powerful in Western Europe. Eight reactors are affected in total.
The steel industry could continue
After Having summoned the unions in case of emergency, the management of ArcelorMittal, in Florange, announced, this Thursday, “changes in the operation of the lines for November and December”, following the reorganization of its production in Europe, Frédéric Weber told us. , General Secretary of FO in Florange. However, this could lead to a drop in activity and extend the long-term partial activity regime (APLD) to other lines of business than those already affected. “After posting $8 billion in profit in the first half of 2022, management is now looking to save money,” he said.
Therefore, FO should, like the CGT, call a general strike for Tuesday, October 18. The union thus intends to protest against the fall in purchasing power, the reform of pensions and requisitions.
The civil service on strike on October 18
On Thursday night, it was the UFSE-CGT Public Service that called the strike for Tuesday, October 18.
“We call for the widest possible participation with the staff in the interprofessional day of strike and demonstration on Tuesday, October 18, 2022 for the defense of the right to strike, salary increases and our rights to retirement,” added the first public service union said in a statement on Tuesday.
Calls have been submitted for the three aspects of the public function (State, territorial and hospital). The three components of the CGT Civil Service (Federal Union of State Trade Unions, Federation of Public Services, Federation of Health and Social Action) also affirm in the text “their full support for the strike of the workers of the oil industries” and “condemns the requisitions” of fuel tanks at TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil.
The Federation of Public Services specified in a separate press release calling for a strike “to support the actions decided by the strikers in the refineries, to reaffirm our salary demands (10% increase at the immediate index point), our rejection of the pension reform sought by Macron and our adherence to the right to strike and trade union freedoms”.
Source: BFM TV
