France’s oil strikes push on as petrol station queues worsen
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 €8bn 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 Île-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
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