French union in bid to paralyse country
PARIS: France’s hardline CGT union sought to choke off power and fuel supplies and hamper the public transport network yesterday in a showdown with a government that flatly refused to withdraw a contested labour law reform.
Ahead of nationwide street demonstrations, workers heeded the union’s call by stopping work at oil refineries, nuclear power stations and the state railways, also erecting roadblocks, burning wooden pallets and tyres at key ports like Le Havre and near key distribution hubs.
The stand-off, which raises the spectre of disruption during the France-hosted European soccer tournament that opens on June 10, was condemned both by Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls and the country’s other big trade union, the CFDT.
After months of rolling protests sparked by a reform that seeks to make hiring and firing easier, yesterday’s stoppages and street marches were being watched closely as a test of whether the CGT-led opposition is solid or at risk of fizzling out.
Valls said he would in no case scrap the part of the law that put the CGT on the warpath.
That part of the law would allow firms to opt out of national obligations on labour protection if they adopt in-house deals on pay and conditions with the consent of a majority of employees.
However, in a further sign of disagreements within the ruling Socialist party over how to find a way out of the crisis, Finance Minister Michel Sapin said “maybe” that article of the bill should be tweaked. The SNCF state train company said that upwards of two-thirds of national, regional and local rail connections were operating, suggesting stoppages by railworkers were hurting less than last week when a similar strike halved the number of trains running. After police intervention in recent days to lift blockades at refineries and fuel distribution depots, Valls said 20-30% of fuel stations were dry or short of certain fuel.
“The situation is less worriesome as of today,” Transport Minister Alain Vidalies said. Deliveries of fuel from depots to the petrol pump were now improving, he said.
French nuclear power capacity was cut by as much as 5 gigawatts due to stoppages. That is equivalent to just over 6% of the country’s total production capacity.
Power industry experts have said the nuclear plant strike is unlikely to provoke blackouts due to legal limits on strike action in the nuclear industry and power imports from abroad. France has also mobilised its strategic fuel reserves to keep filling stations running.
A protest over pension funding reform in 2010 fizzled out once the government of the time started breaking up fuel supply depots and railworkers became strained by stoppages that hit their pay cheque.
The CGT was fighting a more lonely battle this time as it does not have backing from the other big union, the CFDT. CFDT head Laurent Berger, whose union backs the reform, called for a truce, saying: “The political and industrial relations climate has turned hysterical… let’s calm things down.”