Pensions: power cuts at Fort Brégançon, mobilization continues

Garbage collectors: in Paris the accumulation continues

With some 7.000 tons of waste piling up in the streets of Paris, the garbage collectors and cleanliness agents of the City of Paris voted Tuesday evening to continue the strike "at least until March 20". The Minister of the Interior has asked the town hall to requisition garbage collectors. Garbage collectors from the Var notably intervened to collect garbage in Paris.

Around Paris, the incineration plants of Ivry-sur-Seine and Issy-les-Moulineaux are blocked by the strike. That of Saint-Ouen is undergoing maintenance.

Power cuts at Fort Brégançon, ultimatum for gas workers

The electricity and gas sector remains mobilized given the crucial issue for employees who, in addition to the postponement of the legal age, refuse the abolition of their special pension scheme.

In the south, power outages occurred early Wednesday. The Fort de Brégançon, official residence of the Presidency of the Republic, was affected, according to Jean-Louis Arcamone, president of the CFE-CGC Energie Côte d'Azur.

In Corsica, 1.900 customers suffered cuts in Ajaccio and a thousand in Bastia, according to the secretary general of CGT-Energie in Corsica, mainly "in privileged neighborhoods, on the route des Sanguinaires in Ajaccio and in the top of Bastia " .

In nuclear power plants, Wednesday morning, a filtering dam disrupted access to Blayais in Gironde, a hundred agents on the picket line having voted to maintain the dam 24 hours a day "without time limit", according to John Gazziero , CGT union representative, interviewed by AFP.

At that of Saint-Laurent des Eaux (Loir-et-Cher), an AG of 300 employees set up a strike picket to slow down the entries, which also slows down the maintenance program of the ten-year visit in progress, indicated to AFP Amélie Henri, national secretary CFE-Energy at EDF.

Declines in electricity production in France amounted to 10.710 MW on Wednesday morning, the equivalent of 10 nuclear reactors, according to EDF management.

On the gas side, the employees of four French LNG terminals and 11 gas storage sites of Storengy, a subsidiary of Engie, have renewed their strike until the beginning of next week.

On Wednesday, the CGT Energie issued an "ultimatum" to Storengy, so that it lowers the pressure on the entire GRT gas network "symbolically to 49,3 bar", in reference to the possible use by the government of Article 49.3 of the Constitution to have the reform adopted if no agreement is found on the text between the parliamentarians of the joint joint committee.

If the pressure lowering "is not done properly from the control room" by management, "it will be done by the strikers, but we would prefer it to be done properly," said Frédéric Ben, gas manager at CGT Energy.

Refineries are marking time

Several refineries are still on strike Wednesday morning: "in those of Donges, La Mède and Fos, the movement is renewed with a halt to shipments," Eric Sellini, CGT coordinator for the sector, told AFP.

"On that of Normandy, the employees are still on strike but there are shipments".

The Petroineos refinery in Lavera was also forced to ship a little more product than expected, so as not to have to shut down the refinery, "it may give the impression that we have stopped the strike, but it is far to be the case," Sébastien Varagnol, CGT delegate at the plant, told AFP.

Mr. Sellini, however, communicated only one rate of strikers, 100% at the Flanders depot. TotalEnergies had 42% of operators in the first quarter on strike on Wednesday, against 36% the day before.

In the chemical sector, two Solvay sites are on renewable strike, notably in Tavaud in the Jura, and three Arkema sites, said Emmanuel Lépine, general secretary of Chemistry CGT to AFP.

Contrasting situation in transport

At the SNCF, traffic remains disrupted and traffic on Wednesday will be similar to that of Monday and Tuesday, with in particular 3 TGV Inoui and Ouigo out of 5, 1 Intercity out of 3, no night train and 2 TER out of 5 on national average and difficulties in Ile-de-France. On March 7, 80% of TGVs had been cancelled.

The RATP forecasts slightly disrupted traffic in the Paris metro and very disrupted in the RER, overall better than during the first days of the strikes.

In the air, 20% of flights were canceled at Paris-Orly due to a strike by air traffic controllers. Cancellations are fewer than last week, but flights at Bordeaux-Mérignac and rotations at Lille-Lesquin suffered delays of some 45 minutes on Wednesday morning, and 15 to 30 minutes on average at Roissy and Orly.

In road transport, blockages are also put in place in the country. Drivers completely blocked Wednesday all access to the A26 motorway, in the north, between Calais and Thérouanne.