A French labor union walked out of talks with oil giant Total on Sunday, pledging to toughen a strike that has shut down the company’s refineries in France for three days.
Charles Foulard, the CGT union’s coordinator for Total, left talks at the company’s headquarters west of Paris saying “negotiations have broken down.”
CGT, which represents a majority of workers in the conflict, wants to enlist workers at French refineries not run by Total SA in the protest, he said.
PHOTO: AFP
The strike has shut down Total’s six French refineries — half the total in France — since Friday. The movement, sparked by workers’ concerns about the future of a refinery in Dunkirk, northern France, has raised fears in France about possible gasoline shortages.
Total says it has fuel stored that it can draw on, though it has declined to say how many days that could last. It also says it can make stocks from other European countries available if needed.
The oil giant has been preparing new uses for the Dunkirk site and the company says its activities have been stopped since September because of a drop in consumption of petroleum products.
French Industry Minister Christian Estrosi said that Total’s chief executive promised him on Sunday that all Dunkirk workers’ jobs were guaranteed, whatever was decided about how to use the site in the future, but the CGT has insisted that the refinery must continue to run as it has in the past.
CGT meetings to discuss the strike’s future were planned at Total refineries yesterday.
Foulard has predicted France will reach “borderline shortage” in the coming week. The French oil refiners’ body, UFIP, said this weekend that France has at least 10 days’ worth of fuel stocks.
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