Pedro Afonso, union delegate of the General Confederation of Workers (CGT) at the Total refinery in Feyzin, which maintains the fuel strike that paralyzed France, says that the minimum wage in Portugal is “shocking” and that the workers’ struggle of the refinery will continue to have an impact throughout Europe.
Trade unionism runs through the veins of Pedro Afonso, with his father, who settled several decades ago in France, in the Lyon region, already forming part of the CGT, one of the largest trade union centers in France. At that time, as this Franco-Portuguese recalls, it was the unions that helped the Portuguese community.
“My father was already a union member of the CGT and in the Portuguese community of Lyon there were many people from the CGT. Who helped those who arrived in France by leaps and bounds? Who gave them a hand? It was the unions and today we continue” , said Pedro Afonso in statements to Agência Lusa.
It has been more than a month since the Feyzin refinery, in the Lyon region, where Pedro Afonso, a union delegate, entered in greve joining other refineries, taking 30% of the service stations in France to no longer combust and paralyzing for some days the country. The initial claims were for a 10% increase in wages due to Total’s extraordinary increase in profits due to the war in Ukraine.
“I remember that Total had record and miraculous profits, with 16 billion euros of profit in the first half and with 36 billion euros announced by the company in 2022, so I think that, of course, this oil giant has all the means in order to respond. to the legitimate demands of its workers and has a role to play in French society and in the other countries where it operates”, he declared.
In mid-October an agreement was reached with other unions with a 7% increase and a bonus for workers with heavier tasks, but the Feyzin refinery decided to continue asking for the integration of colleagues who have worked for years in a regular temporary job.
With negotiations deadlocked with management, Feyzin workers are now asking for a mediator from the Republic to help advance the tug-of-war, but the government responded this week with new requests. For Pedro Afonso, who represents the will expressed by the workers in their daily assemblies, this is a fight that has already spread to other sectors in France.
“It is a struggle of the Feyzin workers, but it is a struggle that we want to share with all sectors, we have come to EDF [empresa de eletricidade]Along with the transport companies, we have our colleagues from these two sectors who call us and thank us because they have made a lot of progress with a strike day. Our precursor movement had an impact,” he said.
A member of Total’s European works council, Pedro Afonso expects salary increases to become generalized in the countries where this company is present, and especially in Portugal. This trade unionist said that he was “shocked” by the value of the minimum wage in Portugal.
“We ask for an increase in all wages depending on the standard of living in each country where Total is present. When we saw the minimum wages in Portugal, as a Frenchman of Portuguese origin, I was shocked. It is the same as in the Eastern countries and when we compare with rents and prices in supermarkets even here in France, I don’t know how the Portuguese live,” he lamented.
With roots in northern Portugal, alongside Chaves, Pedro Afonso remains grateful for the Saturday classes to learn Portuguese that allow him to understand and speak the language, and says he wants to do the same with his children.
“It is a great wealth and I want to continue transmitting this culture to my children,” concluded the trade unionist.
Source: TSF
