The CGT Energía (FNME-CGT) promised this Tuesday new “targeted cuts” as part of the fight against the pension reform, the day after its approval in Parliament.
“We will still go towards targeted cuts, what we call ‘energy sobriety’, because that, in itself, is attacking capital, those who govern us”, declared the general secretary of the FNME-CGT, Sébastien Menesplier, during a visit on Tuesday morning at the picket line at the Gravelines nuclear power plant (North).
“We are going to show them that we are mobilized and that we are determined,” he added. “Anger is great.” Since the start of the conflict, strikers in the sector have multiplied power cuts, against parliamentary offices – even that of Senate President Gérard Larcher – or the houses of political leaders, but also on a larger scale.
“Sanctions weigh on the economy”
Recently, 43,000 homes were temporarily without electricity in the Var or 32,000 in the Ardennes. “Yes, the actions weigh on the economy of our companies and therefore necessarily on the State”, stressed Sébastien Menesplier. But “we will not be able to get out of this movement without having the certainty that this reform can be kept in the closet.”
At the Gravelines power station, in front of which unionists have installed filter dams, activity has been partially idle for several days, which strikers say costs the state money, forced to buy power at higher rates. The maintenance of the reactors has also been delayed, with the consequence of possible tensions in the network next winter.
But “we don’t do anything, all activities work safely,” says Nicolás Dessertenne, from the CGT. The strong mobilization of energy employees is explained by a reform in which they have even more to lose than other corporations, with the announced suppression of their special pension regime.
Source: BFM TV
