PARIS —
Thousands of people took to the streets across
France on Tuesday and commuters
faced delays as unions staged a nationwide strike for higher salaries, as they
remain in deadlock with the government over walkouts at oil depots that have
sparked fuel shortages.
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“It’s a shame it
had to come to blockades for something to happen,” said Nadine, a 45-year-old
employee in the metalworking industry who was among more than 1,000
demonstrators in Strasbourg, northeast France.
“But today if we
don’t block anything, no one listens,” she said.
Among a crowd of
some 1,800 marching in the southern city of Montpellier, Magali Mallet, a
medical secretary, said she was there because many workers were “living on a
knife’s edge”.
A transport
walkout did not cause major disruptions nationwide, despite making commuters
travelling into the capital from its suburbs late on Tuesday morning.
The broader
strike comes after workers at several oil refineries and depots operated by
energy giant
TotalEnergies voted to extend walkouts.
Their industrial
action has seriously disrupted fuel distribution across the country,
particularly in northern and central France, and the Paris region.
Motorists have
scrambled to fill tanks as the fuel strike, which has lasted for nearly three
weeks, has had a knock-on effect across all sectors of the economy.
‘Serious
consequences’
Prime Minister
Elisabeth Borne said that less than a quarter of petrol
stations nationwide were experiencing shortages, down from 30 percent
previously.
President
Emmanuel Macron’s government used requisitioning powers to force some strikers
back to open fuel depots, a move that infuriated unions but has so far been
upheld in the courts.
But his
government is also pushing bosses to acknowledge salary demands, with Interior
Minister Gerald Darmanin saying Tuesday that there was “a salary problem” in
France and urging employers “to increase pay when possible”.
Workers have also
been striking in the nuclear power sector, potentially hampering efforts to
restart reactors down for maintenance or safety work.
At the northern
Gravelines nuclear plant, 32-year-old technician Henia Abidi said she was not
usually one to protest.
“But now since
it’s about inflation and our salaries, I really feel concerned. I won’t give
up,” she said, adding that everything from food to fuel had become expensive.
Power grid
operator RTE warned Tuesday that “any extension of the social movement” at the
nuclear power stations would have “serious consequences” on electricity
provision this winter.
Macron said last
week only 30 out of 56 nuclear reactors were online, while the country hoped to
have 45 working by January.
But French state
energy provider EDF said Saturday it was postponing plans to bring five of the
halted reactors back on stream.
The leftist CGT
and FO unions called the nationwide strike Tuesday for higher salaries, and
against government requisitions of oil installations.
The action is the
unions’ biggest challenge to Macron since he won a new presidential term in
May.
The Liberation
newspaper published a front-page caricature of Macron swept off his feet and
clinging on to the edge of a giant megaphone blasting the message of angry
protesters.
Tense autumn?
Unions in other industries and in the public sector had also announced
action to protest against the twin impact of soaring energy prices and overall
inflation on the cost of living.
Beyond transport
workers, unions had hoped to bring out staff in sectors such as the food
industry and healthcare.
The education
ministry said less than six percent of its workers had walked out, though that
rate reached 23 percent for vocational schools.
Their action will
kick off what could be a tense autumn and winter as Macron also seeks to
implement his flagship domestic policy of raising the French retirement age.
The economic
squeeze partly caused by thw war in
Ukraine, along with the failure of Macron’s
party to secure an overall majority in June legislative polls, only adds to the
magnitude of the task.
A poll by the Elabe group
found that one in three French people would be prepared to take part in a
strike or protest in the coming weeks to demand pay increases as inflation
soars.
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