Beijing time:2022-10-13 09:12
[NTD, Beijing, October 13, 2022]The Russian-Ukrainian war has led to a series of social problems such as high inflation in Europe. Many European countries have held strikes and marches to protest against the rising cost of living. Among them, the French oil refinery workers’ strike lasted the longest, and the Wednesday (October 12) has been going on for 23 days, triggering a nationwide oil shortage.
There were long queues at gas stations across the streets of France on Wednesday. In Paris, citizens had to stand in line at 4 a.m. and wait for more than four hours just to add a barrel of oil, causing complaints from drivers.
Delivery driver Eddy: “It’s a terrible situation, it’s a disaster, if it continues like this, everyone will strike because it’s annoying and we can’t drive because of the lack of diesel.”
French refinery workers want higher wages amid rising prices. At the end of September, France’s most powerful General Trade Union (CGT) led a strike by workers. As a result, many refineries of Total Energy and Exxon Mobil in France were forced to close, affecting about 60% of the gasoline production in France, and nearly 1/3 of the gas stations were out of fuel.
Marin Guillotin, representative of the FORCE OUVRIERE trade union, said: “The ideal is to listen to our legitimate demands and negotiate in 2022 with everyone at the negotiating table for a quick return to normalcy.”
At present, ExxonMobil has progressed in negotiations with the union, agreeing to raise wages by 6.5% next year, plus a subsidy of 3,000 euros.
However, the communication between Total Energy and the trade union did not go well, and they only agreed to advance the negotiation time from November to October on the premise of stopping the strike, which was rejected by the French Federation of Trade Unions.
Seeing that the strike will be extended, the French government has begun to intervene on Tuesday (11th), requiring refinery employees to resume work, otherwise they will face fines and even arrests to avoid greater social unrest in France.
French government spokesman Olivier Veran: “The impact of this social conflict has overwhelmed too many French people. Some are unable to go to work, send their children to school, shop and sometimes even seek medical care.”
Comprehensive report by NTDTV reporter Lin Yi
URL of this article: https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2022/10/13/a103549962.html