Refinery Strikes Worsen as France Moves to Call Back Essential Workers

Date: 12 October 2022 - 22:26

News ID: ۱۰۷۷۳۱

PARIS (Dispatches) - France has said that it would requisition essential workers to staff Exxon’s French oil depot, and threatened to do the same for Total’s French refineries if talks failed to progress. But workers at Total’s Donges refinery decided to strike on Wednesday, French union CGT said.
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said that the government would start the callback process for ExxonMobil’s staff at its oil depots in the country after talks between the oil company and two unions, CGT and FO, stalled. The CFDT union, however, managed on Monday to reach an agreement with Exxon.
“Today some unions, despite the deal, wants to continue the strike action and blockades, we cannot accept that,” Borne said, according to Argus media.
Those comments followed weekend comments by the country’s energy minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher that the government was
“doing its utmost to restore the situation to normal as soon as possible.”
The CGT and FO unions declared strikes weeks ago at Total’s 246,900 bpd Gonfreville and 109,300 bpd Feyzin refineries, along with the Carling petrochemicals plant. The FO Now, ExxonMobil’s 219,000 bpd Donges refinery is being added to the list. The FO union had workers striking at Exxon’s 235,000 bpd Fos-Sur-Mer refinery, as well as its 270,000 bpd Port Jerome refinery, but FO called off its strike action on Monday, Argus said.
The additional striking action comes just as France prepares to order some essential workers back to the workplace.
More than half of the country’s refinery capacity has been offline as many of the country’s gas stations suffer widespread gasoline and diesel outages. On Monday, the CGT trade union rejected an offer from TotalEnergies, which had offered to bring forward negotiations if the union called off the strike.

Maintenance on Eight French Nuclear Reactors Delayed by Strike

France’s FNME trade union said on Wednesday that some workers at EDF’s nuclear plants resumed their strike over salaries, delaying maintenance work on eight reactors as the union sent a message of support to striking refinery workers.
Three of the Cruas nuclear plant’s reactors are affected by the strike, while two reactors at the Cattenom and Tricastin plants and one Bugey reactor have had their maintenance delayed by the strike, FNME said.
The strike is not reducing power supply at active reactors, FNME added.
EDF did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
French nuclear availability is currently at 51% of total capacity with 26 reactors offline for maintenance.
The strikes by workers at nuclear power plants have been ongoing for several weeks, though action has sometimes been suspended.
EDF has been facing organizational challenges over maintenance plans for a few years now and any days of strikes will add to its problems, Emeric de Vigan, vice president of power at data and analytics firm Kpler, said.
“If there is a delay on a site, it’s likely to create a delay on another. This does not help the market to trust EDF’s super-optimistic future availability forecasts,” he added.
FNME representative Viginie Neumayer told Reuters the union sent a message of support to striking workers at refineries and petrol depots owned by oil giants TotalEnergies and Exxon Mobil.