The management suggests that the beginning of the negotiations on compensation hikes take place in October rather than in the middle of November.
The TotalEnergies company, which is engaged in a social struggle with the CGT, has requested that negotiations on salary increases, which are being demanded by the union, begin in October. “According to the oil corporation, TotalEnergies, they are asking everyone to assume some level of responsibility so that they can continue to supply the French with gasoline in the best possible conditions. The CGT, for its part, announced on Sunday that it was prepared to begin negotiations on Monday, even though the strike is currently causing supply difficulties over the entirety of France. The strike began again this past Sunday. “We are going to study the proposals closely and meet tomorrow morning with the various sites to decide on the continuation of the movement,” Eric Selling, CGT coordinator at TotalEnergies, reacted, expressing regret that management did not have a direct exchange with the union. “We are going to meet tomorrow morning with the various sites to decide on the continuation of the movement.”
Discussions were initially scheduled to start in the middle of November. However, in light of the difficulties that have arisen as a result of the gasoline crisis, TotalEnergies has chosen to move the date on which the negotiations will take place forward. The administration and the presidential majority are ramping up their comments to increase the amount of pressure placed on the CGT and management. “Those who work in France are being punished by the strike,” Aurore Bergé, a delegate for La Renaissance, stated this past Sunday.
These negotiations will make it possible to define how employees will be able to benefit, before the end of the year, from the exceptional results generated by TotalEnergies, while also taking into account inflation for the year 2022,” guarantees the French group, which made a profit of $ 10.6 billion during the first half of 2022. “for French employees of the Common Social Base of TotalEnergies,” he recalls, “it had already been agreed with the social partners to advance these mandatory annual negotiations to November 2022 (NAO), instead of waiting until January 2023 as is typically the case.” This was a change from the original plan, which called for the negotiations to take place in January 2023.
While many service stations are still dealing with supply shortages, the CGT of the energy giant addressed an open letter to the CEO of TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanné, on Saturday, in which it offered a concession in the goal of beginning negotiations on Monday. The proposal made by the labor union was to confine the discussions to the only issue of salary hikes, putting its demands about employment and investments on hold for the time being. “Eric Selling, the CGT coordinator at TotalEnergies, clarified that if we do begin negotiations, it will be based on our demands: we are asking for a 10% increase in wages, and for it to be “applied on January 1 and retroactive to 2022.” However, if we do start negotiations, it will be based on our demands.
The strike action that began ten days ago in the refineries and fuel depots of TotalEnergies and the American group Esso-ExxonMobil was renewed early Sunday morning and then again at 2 p.m. by employees, according to the CGT at AFP. The strike action was first initiated ten days ago. On the side of TotalEnergies, the group's largest refinery, which is located in Normandy, that of Feyzin (Rhône), the largest refinery in the group, the “According to the CGT, “the bio-refinery of La Mède (Bouches-du-Rhône) and the Flandres fuel depot near Dunkirk (North) are always completely shut down.”
