Workers at an oil refinery in northern France have agreed to go back to work after weeks of striking as the government ordered more staff back to work at other sites, saying petrol shortages are taking too big a toll on the economy.
Management at one of two Esso-ExxonMobil refineries in Fos-sur-Mer confirmed that workers voted Thursday to end their strike and would be going back to work.
The facility is one of several oil refineries and depots that have taken part in a three-week-long strike that has reduced France’s petrol output by over 60 percent and left one in three petrol stations with little or no fuel, prompting the government to force essential workers to go back to work.
The Fos-sur-Mer facility was not served with any back-to-work orders.
Hefty penalties
Police went to the homes of five employees of a TotalEnergies depot in Mardyck, near Dunkerque, on Thursday to serve them orders to go back to work starting at 2pm local time.
Workers face up to six months in prison and a 10,000 euro fine if they defy such orders.
The government had already requisitioned depot workers to return to the Esso-ExxonMobil refinery at Gravenchon-Port-Jerome in northern France on Wednesday.
The CGT and FO unions leading the refineries strike have said they will fight the requisition orders in court, calling them an illegal move against the right to labour action.
Striking workers are seeking a ten percent wage hike in the face of steep inflation, and they say their employers can afford it, given the massive profits they have made since Russia's invasion of Ukraine increased fuel prices.
One-off bonus
TotalEnergies said in a statement the conditions to hold wage talks with all unions were not in place, but also announced it would pay a one-off bonus of about a month’s salary to all employees worldwide in December.
The company also said it told French unions it was ready to consider a pay increase in 2023 of six percent, to meet 2022 inflation levels.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Thursday told TotalEnergies to raise wages.
"If one knows the profits which they made... companies which have the capacity have a duty to raise wages and Total is one of them", he told RTL radio.
The government has been pressuring the oil companies to negotiate, fearing an escalation ahead of a nationwide march Sunday against inflation, organised by Macron's left-wing opponents.
The CGT union called on the rest of France’s energy sector to join the strike, and workers at five of EDF’s nuclear plants have been delaying maintenance and fuel reloading and cutting power output.
Members of the FNME electricity trade union have been staging rolling strikes at nuclear plants on and off for several weeks, further straining France’s already struggling nuclear power supply.
