Four employee unions – the CGT, FO, Solidaires and FSU – called for a day of interprofessional strike Tuesday October 18 “for the increase in wages and the defense of the right to strike”.
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Hopefully the wick is going before it reaches the barrel of powder. More than two weeks after the start of the first strikes in French refineries, the government is faced with a new risk: the possible spread of the movement to other sectors. Railroad workers, civil servants, national education, nuclear power plants … Since the first requisition of four striking employees at the deposit of the Exxonmobil refinery of Notre-Dame-de-Gravenchon (Seine-Maritime), Wednesday October 12, some smoke signals appeared In a France faced with a fuel shortage. “This strike must make a stain of oil,” launched the next day Emmanuel Lépine, the secretary general of the FNIC-CGT (National Federation of Chemical Industries). A call for the extension of the conflict closely monitored by the executive.
Because for the moment, appeasement does not seem in sight. The movement in refineries turning into calls for general mobilization. Thursday, October 13, in the evening, four employee unions – the CGT, Force Ouvrière, La FSU, Solidaires – and four movements representing youth – Fidl, MNL, UNEF, the high school voice – called to strike on Tuesday on Tuesday October 18, during a day of interprofessional action for “the increase in wages and the defense of the right to strike”. Transport to civil servants, this big day of national strike will in particular affect the SNCF and the RATP. This initiative was taken at the end of a meeting held in Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis), at the national headquarters of the CGT.
The central led by Philippe Martinez, who repositioned himself at the top of the social movement, obtained a rallying of choices: that of Force Ouvrière. This organization, which had distanced itself for several months with the inter -union, decided to join it following the requisitions of strikers in the refineries: “It is the trigger”, confides Patricia Drevon, confederal secretary, in Reporting that many of his comrades were shocked by the decision of the executive, synonymous, in their eyes, of violation of the right to strike. Thursday morning, on BFM-TV , Mr. Martinez had declared that the power in place “made bullshit” by handling the weapon of requisitions. “We must generalize strikes,” he insisted.
The bet of union leaders
The union leaders involved in the protest recognize, aside, that they are betting by stimulating a national day of action within short time, less than three weeks after the demonstrations of September 29 – also centered, also, on the preservation of purchasing power. But they consider that “something is happening” in the country, according to Simon Duteil’s formula, general co-delegate of Solidaires. Apart from the fuel sector, other sectors are already under tension – especially that energy. For the past few weeks, work stoppages, against the backdrop of wage demands, disrupt the activity of several nuclear power plants: Cattenom (Moselle), Tricastin (Drôme), Cruas (Ardèche), Bugey (Ain) … conflicts that could, to Long, complicate EDF’s task to avoid power cuts during winter.
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