In 2010, former president Nicolas Sarkozy used a requisition order – allowed under very strict rules- to counter a similar strike in refineries against a plan to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62.
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Protesters are blocking access to Nantes airport.
(AP Photo/Thibault Camus). Drivers queue to buy gas in a station, in Paris, Tuesday, May 24, 2016.
The strikes and protests are against a labour bill that extends the working week and makes layoffs easier.
While some are fearful of risky fuel shortages, others are more stoic.
Staff in France’s 19 nuclear plants have voted to go on strike on Thursday as part of protests over a labor reform, a CGT union official told Reuters on Wednesday.
Le Bon described the atmosphere as “weird”. Deliveries of fuel from depots to the petrol pump were now improving, he said.
CGT chief Philippe Martinez, however, said his union, one of the biggest in France but whose power is waning and is banking a lot on this wave of protests, would press on with its strikes.
The Total refinery and petrochemical complex at Gonfreville-L’Orcher, outside Le Havre, was almost deserted Wednesday May 18th. The facility handles some 12 million tons of crude oil annually. The country’s eight refineries are all affected by strike action.
Opponents say the bill will mean more work for less money and decreased job security.
“There’s no difference between the (right wing) Republicans and the (left wing) Socialists”, he said, as protesters lunched on baguette and pate. Please see our terms of service for more information.
In the meantime, strikes are erupting in other French industries against the labor law.
Street protests over the law have been going on for weeks but with dwindling turnout.
A train strike which was due to continue Thursday has added to the transportation difficulties, although state railway company SNCF said the impact on train connections was not as much as during strikes last week.
“The situation is less worriesome as of today”, Transport Minister Alain Vidalies said.
After police intervention in recent days to lift blockades at refineries and fuel distribution depots, Valls said 20-30 percent of fuel stations were dry or short of certain fuels.
One of the country’s largest unions, the General Confederation of Labor (or CGT), is fiercely opposed to the proposed changes.
Another customer, Olivier Criq, expressed support for the labor protests but not the fuel strikes.
“It’s beginning to get to a critical point”, said Pascal Barre, who runs a logistics firm in Poincy, east of Paris.
The government hopes that freeing the market from some of its restrictions will encourage French companies to hire more people, in an attempt to overcome the nation’s 10% unemployment rate.
Union Francaise des Industries Petrolieres (UFIP) President Francis Duseux told RMC radio that the industry had been using the strategic reserves for two days.
“We will disrupt the Euro (tournament) and the government will be the one to blame”, 33-year-old sales worker and CGT representative Naima said during the protest march.
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Workers at nuclear power stations have gone on strike on Thursday as part of growing industrial reaction over the country’s controversial reforms to labour laws.
