PARIS, Jan 26 TotalEnergies refinery strikes begin in different regions of France, demonstrators oppose raising the retirement age, the newspaper Echos reported.
«A number of sectors responded to the call of the (trade union) CGT to go on strike this Thursday and Friday,» the journalists write.
According to the publication, 80% of the employees of the largest French refinery in Normandy took to the pickets. The demonstrations were also joined by half of the workers at the refinery in the commune of Donge.
Together with them, all the employees of the fuel depot in the north of the country and 30% of the workers serving the Grandpuis fuel depot came out to protest.
At the same time, TotalEnergies notes that no shortage of fuel is expected, as there are sufficient reserves at the gas station to continue serving customers, the newspaper writes.
Employees of some nuclear power plants, ports and docks, whom the union called for demonstrations, joined the strike against raising the retirement age. Because of this, there may be a decrease in electricity production on Thursday and Friday, but this will not lead to power outages, the authors of the article summarized. world market. The company employs about 100,000 people in more than 130 countries.
In early January, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Born presented a draft of the controversial pension reform, which the government plans to adopt in 2023. According to her, the authorities will begin to raise the retirement age in the country by three months a year from September 1 this year, so by 2030 it will reach 64 years.
Across the country on January 19, more than 200 demonstrations were held at the call of eight leading French trade unions (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, CFTC, Unsa, Solidaires, FSU). The largest actions took place in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille and Nantes. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, more than a million people took part in them. 38 demonstrators were detained.