France’s oil strikes push on as petrol station queues worsen

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Long tailbacks of vehicles continued to grow outside French service stations on Sunday as petrol supply was hit by pay strikes at refineries run by the oil giants, TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil.

The leftwing CGT union is leading a refinery workers’ strike for better pay during the cost-of-living crisis, and for a share of companies’ high profits.

Workers at the French energy group TotalEnergies are seeking an immediate 10% pay rise after a surge in energy prices led to huge profits that allowed the company to pay out an estimated EUR8bn in dividends and an additional special dividend to investors.

Like other major oil companies, TotalEnergies has seen its profits soar as energy prices rose during the war in Ukraine, and government officials have been pressing the company to settle the standoff.

Currently, three of Total’s refineries are blocked, including its largest, in Normandy, as well as a fuel depot near Flanders in the north, after a blockade began almost two weeks ago.

The CGT strike at Total has been under way for almost two weeks. At ExxonMobil, wage talks have been taking place for weeks.

Long queues stretched back for almost two hours at certain petrol stations as drivers scrabbled for fuel, particularly in the ?le-de-France area surrounding Paris and in northern France.

In Haute-Savoie in the south-east, French media reported that a man in his 30s was still being treated in hospital after being repeatedly stabbed by another driver who accused him of overtaking in a queue at a service station earlier this week. The man has been arrested and an investigation was under way.

The strikes have reduced France’s total refinery output by more than 60%, according to calculations by Reuters news agency.

On Sunday TotalEnergies proposed bringing forward annual wage negotiations to begin this month, provided there was an end to the industrial action restricting output at some of its sites.

“TotalEnergies calls on everyone to act responsibly so that the company can supply the French people in the best possible conditions”, the firm said in a statement.

Formal wage talks were initially scheduled to start mid-November. Starting them ahead of schedule is one of the key demands of the CGT union behind the strikes.

TotalEnergies’ CEO last week said “the time has come to reward” workers, but no start date for pay negotiations had been set.

The CGT union told the AFP news agency that the industrial action would continue but they were open to talks as soon as Monday. “If we do start talks, it will be based on our demands: a 10% salary hike … retroactive for the year 2022,” Eric Sellini, CGT coordinator, said.

The government has dipped into strategic stockpiles in a bid to calm drivers’ panic, and fuel trucks were being exceptionally allowed to make deliveries to filling stations on Sunday.