Same goal but different means to achieve it. Last week, the CGT Federation of Mines and Energy (FNME-CGT) carried out its threats of limited voluntary cuts that targeted a Renaissance parliamentarian from Lot, in the center of Montpellier, an industrial area of Massy (Essonne). , as well as administrations, including the prefecture of Haute-Marne in Chaumont. As of this week, the union organization adjusts its strategy. “The cuts are still on the table but we will focus more on positive actions”, summarizes Fabrice Coudour, general secretary of the FNME-CGT.
Elimination of the measurement or change to off-peak hours
Discussed internally for almost two weeks, these actions were publicly discussed yesterday by Renaud Henry, general secretary of CGT Energie Marseille. “Specifically, our objective is to manipulate the counter so that bakers can have 50% or 60% of the price for free,” he explained to RMC this weekend on the sidelines of the Parisian demonstration of professional artisans against the very high energy bills. It is completely illegal. but also completely moral.”
Already orchestrated from time to time in the past, these “Robins Hood” actions can take various forms depending on the target audience. It could be, therefore, the suppression of the measurement of consumption, the obligatory nature of the transition to off-peak hours to benefit from reduced rates or even the restoration of the current where it has been suspended despite the winter break. This last option is more aimed at individuals, unlike the mandatory transition to off-peak hours, the scope of which is limited by the extension of the Linky meters that do not allow this transition at a technical level to be carried out at reduced rates. .
On the other hand, it is popular, as is the abolition of the measurement, to reduce the bills of certain artisan bakers but also possibly of schools or hospitals in a “general interest” logic.
Electricity and gas affected
If you do not want to go into the logistical details of this type of operation for discretion and security, Fabrice Coudour indicates that they will be decided locally and carried out by a small group of agents. These interventions are likely to take place throughout France, both on the side of Enedis for electricity distribution and GRDF for gas. During the fall, several thousand people had also been switched to freedom by striking GRDF officers demanding a pay increase. “Electricians and gas technicians have a perfect command of the work tool, he recalls. It is a very technical act and we do not invite citizens to carry out this type of operation, which is very risky”.
Two factors, linked according to the general secretary of the FNME-CGT, motivate these actions: on the one hand, the excessive level of energy prices that weighs on a large number of French people and, on the other, the pension reform against which the trade union organization hopes to mobilize the largest possible number of demonstrators while the text provides for the abolition of the special regime for the profession. “Everything comes together, we ask for efforts from everyone except the CAC 40 companies, laments Fabrice Coudour. It is a way of saying that we have to get along, we know who we are acting for.”
“It is the taxpayer who pays”
Members of the government reacted this morning to this new threat put forward by the FNME-CGT. “It is not the CGT that decides in France”, “it is not the CGT that decides on the rates”, “it is not up to the CGT to make the law” but “to the parliamentarians”, hammered Bruno Le Maire in Europe 1 On the set of BFMTV, Agnès Pannier-Runacher The Minister of Energy Transition, for her part, recalled that it would be the taxpayer who would ultimately pay for these actions.
Fabrice Coudour denounces a government that works to accustom the French to paying more in the long term and that diverts attention from the priority issue, the pension reform. In charge of 95% of the electricity distribution network in France, Enedis makes it known that it systematically files a complaint with the police and gendarmerie services. “Obviously it respects the right to strike of its employees but strongly condemns any malicious act in the public electricity distribution network that could cause power cuts for its customers, and endanger the safety of assets and customers,” adds the EDF subsidiary. .
Source: BFM TV
