Trade unions have announced a sector-wide strike next week, following days of turmoil in refineries fuelled by French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne’s statement that striking workers be ordered to go back to work.

Unions have been demanding “real wage increases” of at least 10% and have criticised the government for its “ultraliberal strategy”. They also reject reforms currently being reviewed by parliament, including unemployment insurance, pensions, and the budget.

The general strike would expand to all sectors on 18 October, the radical-left CGT trade union, alongside several others, announced on Thursday (13 October).

The decision comes from Borne’s announcement earlier this week that employees essential to the operation of Esso-Exxon-Mobil depots must go back to work, as week-long strikes strain the country’s fuel supply.[...]

The French left has lent its support to the movement.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s radical-Left La France Insoumise party, for example, announced it would organise a march against increasing living costs on Sunday as “the time for a showdown [with the government] has come”.

Strikers also point to the mismatch between the lack of significant salary increases and the so-called “super profits” made by energy providers. Anger is rooted in the unfairness of super profits and rising inflation, Communist Senator Céline Brulin told EURACTIV.

14 Oct 22