Strike-Hit France Dips into Fuel Reserves
France said Wednesday it has dipped into its strategic oil reserves due to blockades at refineries as power workers threatened to join gathering protests against a labor law reform.
Police fired water cannon to disperse activists blocking an oil depot in the northeast, but six out of eight of France's refineries were still either at a standstill or had sharply reduced their output.
The head of the oil industry federation (Ufip) said that with a fifth of petrol pumps running dry, it had begun using strategic reserves.
"For the past two days, since there have been operational problems at the refineries and blockades of depots, we have... been using reserve supplies," Francis Duseux told French radio.
France has nearly four months of fuel reserves, but the announcement that they are already being tapped heaps further pressure on President Francois Hollande's deeply unpopular Socialist government.
The CGT union, locked in an increasingly bitter struggle with the government, has threatened to extend its action to nuclear power stations on Thursday.
It has urged "the biggest action possible" on a day when unions have called for a broad day of strikes and demonstrations across the country.
One nuclear power plant in Nogent-sur-Seine, around 100 kilometers (62 miles) southeast of Paris, is already operating at reduced capacity.
One of the two reactors has been out of operation since Tuesday "due to a technical problem" and "we will ensure that it is not re-started", said Arnaud Pacot, the local CGT representative.
- Police smash barricades -
Authorities stepped up their action to try to ensure the blockades of refineries and fuel depots do not paralyze France with just over two weeks to go before it hosts the Euro 2016 football championships.
Riot police used force to break a blockade at an oil depot in Douchy-les-Mines near the Belgian border that had been in place since Thursday.
Watched by around 80 striking workers, firefighters extinguished burning tires that were blocking roads, sending thick plumes of smoke billowing into the air.
"They cleared away all our barricades. The depot was unblocked without confrontation," said Willy Dans, a spokesman for the local branch of the SUD union.
"The police moved in quickly. They used water cannon. We got the feeling they were tense," Dans told AFP.
Most petrol stations in that area were empty, forcing motorists to hop over the border to Belgium to fill up, reported an AFP photographer on the ground.
Police also removed a blockade at a fuel depot in the western port of Brest.
The blockades and strikes are part of a wave of social unrest that has seen hundreds of thousands take to the streets in often violent protests against labor reforms over the last three months.
Transport was further hampered Wednesday by a rolling train strike, causing disruption for commuters.
Some companies said the fuel blockades were starting to hit their business.
"It's beginning to get to a critical point," said Pascal Barre, who runs a logistics firm in Poincy, east of the capital.
"We filled up at the end of last week and at the beginning of this week but our drivers need to fill up again and it's not possible."
He warned: "If we can't deliver to shops and supermarkets, it's going to put France on its knees."
CGT leader Philippe Martinez has vowed to continue the action until the labor legislation is withdrawn.
The blockades have sparked a dark warning from oil giant Total, which operates five of the refineries affected.
"If our colleagues want to take an industrial asset hostage for a cause that is foreign to the company, you have to ask whether that is where we should invest," Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne said Tuesday.
Martinez hit back Wednesday, accusing Total of "blackmail."
Protesters are furious that the government rammed the controversial labor market reforms through parliament without a vote.
The reforms are designed to address France’s famously rigid labor market by making it easier to hire and fire workers.
But opponents say they are too pro-business and will do little to reduce France's jobless rate of around 10 percent.
An International Monetary Fund report has backed the government, arguing the reforms are needed to reduce unemployment.
Source: Agence France Presse
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/210115 |