With A Third Of French Gas Stations Experiencing “Supply Shortages”, Energy Giant Seeks Urgent Wage Talks
Just days after we reported that France had tapped its strategic fuel reserves to resupply a growing number of gas stations that had run dry due to a nearly two-week long strike of refinery workers, with Government spokesman Olivier Veran urging consumers not to panic-buy only to achieve the opposite results, on Sunday the French Energy ministry announced that almost a third of French petrol (that’s gasoline for US readers) stations were experiencing “supply difficulties” with at least one fuel product (up from 21% on Saturday), as French energy giant TotalEnergies offered to bring forward wage talks, in response to union demands, as it sought to end the strike that has pushed French to the bring of a historic energy crisis.
“Provided the blockades will end and all labor representatives agree, the company proposes to advance to October the start of mandatory annual wage talks,” it said in a statement. The talks were initially scheduled to start in mid-November.
In response, Union representatives earlier told Reuters the strikes staged by the CGT, historically one of France’s more militant unions, would continue even as unions said they are willing to begin negotiations next week.
They have disrupted operations at two ExxonMobil sites as well as at two TotalEnergies sites, sending French gasoline inventories sliding. Over roughly two weeks of industrial action, France’s domestic fuel output has fallen by more than 60%, straining nerves across the country, as waiting lines grow and supplies have run dry.
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