where is the mobilization?

The mobilization against the pension reform continues. On the eve of a new day of action and while the examination of the text continues in the Senate, renewable strikes are still in progress in several sectors, Friday, March 10, in an attempt to make the government back down. In a letter to the intersyndicale dated Thursday, Emmanuel Macron told the unions that the government remained “listening”but without responding to their request to meet him in “emergency”.

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In line with the sixth day of mobilization on Tuesday, the most followed of the movement with 1.28 million demonstrators in the country according to the Ministry of the Interior, and 3.5 million according to the CGT, the unions called for the continuation of renewable strikes in the sectors of transport, depots and refineries, gas or even among garbage collectors. Franceinfo takes stock of the evolution of this protest movement on Friday.

In stations

The movement against the pension reform continues in particular at the SNCF, where traffic remains “strongly disturbed” Friday, and “on all lines”. According to the railway company, “Traffic forecasts this weekend should remain disrupted in a similar way to Friday, with possible local developments”. On Friday, it takes one out of two Ouigo and Inoui trains, and one out of 10 trains for the province-to-province TGVs. Only one in four Intercités circulates on average. Two out of five regional trains run on average. Finally, only two out of three Eurostars, three out of five Thalys and two out of five Lyrias are at the start.

As far as the Ile-de-France region is concerned, three out of four trains are announced for RER A, one out of two trains for RER B, one out of three for RER C, one out of five for RER D and one out of two for RER E.

At RATP, traffic is “significantly improving” Friday compared to Thursday, announces the Régie des transports parisiens. He is “normal on the metro network except for a few lines”, as well as “on the bus and tram networks”. “The traffic for the day of Saturday March 11 should be almost equivalent to the day of Friday”, specifies the RATP. Thursday, the RATP inter-union called “all RATP agents to continue the pressure, on the government and parliamentarians, by subscribing to the call of the national inter-union”, that is to say by participating in the demonstration scheduled for Saturday afternoon in Paris, “and in the strike and the demonstration of Wednesday, March 15”.

At airports

Since Tuesday and until Friday inclusive, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) has asked air carriers to reduce their flight programs “20% at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle airport and 30% at Paris-Orly, Beauvais, Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Nantes, Marseille, Montpellier, Nice and Toulouse airports”, due to a strike by air traffic controllers denouncing the pension reform project. For these four days − including Friday − Air France has declared that it plans to provide “nearly eight flights out of 10” while its low-cost company Transavia has canceled 30% of its program.

For Saturday and Sunday, the DGAC has asked airlines to cancel 20% of their flights at several airports. On Saturday, this reduction in the flight schedule will concern Paris-Orly, Marseille, Nantes, Toulouse and Bordeaux. On Sunday, only the airports of Orly, Marseille and Toulouse will be affected, the administration said in a press release.

In fuel depots and refineries

Friday morning, the strike was renewed “at all TotalEnergies refining sites and at the oil depot in Flanders”, announced to franceinfo Eric Sellini, national coordinator of the CGT for TotalEnergies. The movement against the pension reform therefore continued in the refineries of Gonfreville-l’Orcher (Seine-Maritime), La Mède (Bouches-du-Rhône), Donges (Loire-Atlantique), Feyzin (Rhône) as well as at the Flanders oil depot in Mardyck (North), said the trade unionist.

At the Esso-ExxonMobil refinery in Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône), fuel shipments partially resumed on Friday morning, according to the group, but the CGT denounced a “handling” of management and announced a “hardening” movement in the afternoon. “Our management lied to the morning shift by telling them that a refinery close to ours had been shipping via pipeline since mid-week”said Lionel Arbiol, CGT manager of the site. “The morning team has therefore let a few shipments pass, but they will be stopped at 1 p.m.”he warned.

Fuel shipments had already resumed Thursday at the Esso-ExxonMobil refinery in Port-Jérôme-Gravenchon (Seine-Maritime). At the Petroineos refinery in Lavéra (Bouches-du-Rhône), the blocking was voted until Monday morning, according to Sébastien Varagnol of the CGT.

For gas and electricity

On Monday, three of the four LNG terminals which import liquefied natural gas (LNG) into France had been shut down for “seven days”, announced Monday evening the CGT Elengy, in order to protest against the pension reform. On Thursday, the four terminals were shut down, and 13 out of 14 storage sites – the last being a small site without employees – were also blocked. Fabrice Coudour, federal secretary of the FNME-CGT union, raises the threat of“a possible shortage of gas” in a few days. “The determination is all the more intact as this passage of article 7” on the postponement of the legal retirement age to 64, adopted Wednesday evening in the Senate, “reinforce a little anger”he says.

At the same time, the CGT claimed new power cuts in Moselle and Savoie on Friday morning. In Thionville (Moselle), the town hall and the court were without power on Friday morning, and officials had to start their working day in the dark, reports France Bleu Lorraine Nord. The CGT Energie de Moselle claimed responsibility. At Bourget-du-Lac (Savoie), 2,000 customers in the Technolac business area were without electricity in the morning. Enedis confirmed the information with France Bleu Pays de Savoie.

In waste management

In Paris, the garbage collectors continue their strike movement against the reform. Thursday, 3,700 tons of waste had not been collected in the capital, according to the town hall, against 1,800 Tuesday evening. “Waste collection activities remain very disrupted throughout the city”, summarized to AFP the assistant (PS) for cleanliness Colombe Brossel. The town hall states that “three Syctom sites [le syndicat de traitement des ordures ménagères dans Paris et une grande partie de sa banlieue] are subject to blockages, which impacts the entire collection”. The incineration plants at Ivry-sur-Seine, Issy-les-Moulineaux and Saint-Ouen being shut down, the waste collected is redirected to external treatment or storage centers

Elsewhere in France, garbage collectors from the Sophia-Antipolis urban community also continued their strike action on Thursday. Since Tuesday, nearly three-quarters of the agents have been on strike. The notice is announced until Saturday.

In schools

Thursday, dBlockades, often partial, have also been organized in several high schools and universities. In Marseille, Friday morning, the Montgrand and Saint-Exupéry high schools were blocked, reports France 3 Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. The Foch high school in Rodez (Aveyron) was also blocked, according to Press Centerjust like the Vaugelas high school in Chambéry (Savoie), according to the unef student union.