‘Painful Thursday’ strikes reduce French power supply, halt refinery shipments
- Trade unions are up in arms against government’s plan to make people work longer before they can retire, and have called on workers to walk out on their jobs
- Electricity output fell and deliveries from refineries have been halted, meaning nuclear stations are likely to ramp up to ensure grid stability during the day
A nationwide strike against pension reform in France led to a substantial fall in electricity output and halted deliveries from refineries operated by TotalEnergies on Thursday.
EDF and grid operator RTE data showed electricity production was down by 7.8 Gigawatts (GW), roughly 12 per cent of total power supply, prompting France to raise its imports from Britain, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Spain.
EDF’s outage table showed a 4.5GW nuclear supply reduction at eight reactors, 460 megawatts (MW) of reduced hydropower and 2.8GW of lower thermal production.
“Nuclear stations are … likely to ramp up to ensure grid stability during the day. This is how strikes work in France: strikers are not allowed to put security of supply at risk,” analyst Emeric de Vigan said.
Meanwhile, deliveries of refined oil products were blocked from leaving refineries operated by TotalEnergies, the company said.
The hard-left CGT union expects that at least 70 per cent of its refinery sector employees at TotalEnergies’ four refining sites will join the strike action, a CGT representative said.
There would be no disruption to fuel supplies at service stations if the unions maintained their strike timetable, TotalEnergies has said. The CGT refineries federation has called for a single day of strike this week and further walkouts next week and the week after.
Strikes called as Macron pushes to raise France retirement age to 64
CGT union boss Philippe Martinez said Thursday marked just the first day of strikes and that there would be more.
Trade unions are up in arms against the government’s plan to make people work longer before they can retire. They have called on workers across the public and private sector to walk out on their jobs and take to the streets.
Workers in sectors including railways, schools, hospitals and air traffic controllers are taking part in the 24-hour strike against Macron’s plan to raise France’s minimum retirement age to 64 from 62. Unions will lead marches across France’s largest cities with the backing of left-wing political parties.
In a rare show of unity, France’s eight largest labour unions have coordinated efforts and the expected disruptions have prompted the government to urge people to work from home. Still, the success of the strikes is set to be at least partly measured by the scope of the street demonstrations. Both the CGT union and the head of the Communist Party have set a goal of having at least 1 million people protest across France for what is likely to be just one of a series of actions.
“It will be a painful Thursday” Transport Minister Clement Beaune warned in an interview on France 2.
