The strike movement demanding steep wage increases to offset inflation is widening in France, with a growing impact on energy and transport infrastructure.
To the stoppage in several refineries, which causes a serious problem of fuel shortages, is added the partial strike, more discreet but worrying, which is being carried out by the maintenance employees of five nuclear power plants operated by the company Electricité de France (EDF), under total control of the state and heavily indebted. This protest is affecting a total of nine reactors at the Cattenom, Tricastin, Bugey, Cruas and Gravelines atomic facilities.
The strike at the nuclear power plants is a serious matter because France was already experiencing technical maintenance difficulties and cracks that have forced almost half of the reactors to stop. The labor conflict contributes to the danger of electricity cuts this winter, an eventuality that the Government takes into account and hence its intense campaign for individuals and companies to lower consumption.
The situation is getting closer to a general strike, although few dare to designate it as such for now. The leader of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), the former communist union, Philippe Martínez, does speak of “generalizing” the strike in the public and private sectors.
A few hours after Martínez's statements, the CGT announced a call for a 24-hour strike, on the 18th of this month, at the national railway company (SNCF) and at the Parisian public transport company (RATP). The date has not been chosen at random. It will be shortly before the great exodus begins for the All Saints school holidays (from October 22 to November 7), a period in which many French families move.
Citizen patience continues to be put to the test, meanwhile, with the long queues that form at gas stations where fuel arrives because it soon runs out. People must wait for hours. Although resignation and stoicism predominate, there have been some fights at the pumps due to people who skip their shift or who try to fill containers and even bottles to hoard gasoline or diesel, something that is prohibited. Some service stations have had to hire security personnel. The CGT and another very combative union, Fuerza Obrera, remain adamant, despite TotalEnergies' offer to give extra pay to its more than 100,000 employees worldwide. A small sign of hope was the end of the strike decided by the staff of the refinery of the American group Esso-ExxonMobil in Fos-sur-Mer, near Marseille.
