After weeks of strikes, fuel is already running out at gas stations in France. You can't get far there by bus or train either: an escalation of the labor dispute paralyzes 50 percent of local transport. The protests are now also having an impact on Europe's electricity supply.
After weeks of industrial action at France's major refineries, unions have stepped up strikes in a bid for higher wages. In addition to the gas stations, public areas such as schools and transport are now also affected. Despite the first agreement reached on Friday, the left-wing union CGT at the oil and gas company TotalEnergies called for work stoppages for the fourth week in a row. The agreed wage increase of seven percent plus bonus is not sufficient in view of the inflation and the huge profits of the group, it said.
French government spokesman Olivier Veran announced that more staff would be called in later in the day to ensure supplies to petrol stations, where fuel is now running low. "There will be as many requirements as is deemed necessary... Blocking refineries when we've reached an agreement on wages is not a normal situation," Veran said. As tensions mount in the euro zone's second-largest economy, strikes have already spilled over into other parts of the energy sector, including nuclear giant EDF, where maintenance work crucial to Europe's electricity supply will be delayed.
The operator of the French railway SNCF announced that local transport had fallen by 50 percent. But there are no major disruptions in long-distance traffic. Eurostar said some trains between London and Paris had been canceled because of the strike.
The first refineries had reached agreements with the unions last week. So the strike at ExxonMobile was suspended. The French government recently threatened to get involved in the collective bargaining dispute. The strike paralyzed more than 60 percent of the refinery capacities in France. The negotiations between TotalEnergies and the CGT were recently deadlocked.
