• Union pledges to reinforce blockade of trash incinerators
• Aviation authority tells airlines to cut some Orly flights

James Regan, Bloomberg News

PARIS
EnergiesNet.com 03 20 2023

France’s FNME-CGT union called on workers in the electricity, gas and broader energy sector to pursue open-ended strikes to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s reform of the pension system.

Labor representatives urged strikers to gather at strategic sites, including the country’s four liquefied natural gas terminals and 13 gas storage facilities, and maintain reductions in power production to weigh on the economy.

“Gas shortages could arise within several days if the government doesn’t see reason,” the union said in a statement on Friday.

The FNME-CGT also pledged to reinforce its blockade of incinerators. More than 10,000 tons of trash have piled up in the streets of Paris alone, according to city hall, as garbage collectors strike over the plan to raise the minimum retirement age by two years.

The union said the government’s decision to use a constitutional clause on Thursday to push through the reform without putting it to a vote in the National Assembly had only strengthened their fight.

The government faces no-confidence motions in the coming days, filed by opposition parties in parliament. If it’s defeated, this would nullify the pension bill and force Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne to resign. Macron would then have to appoint a new government.

Thousands of citizens gathered on Friday for a second night on the Place de la Concorde square, across the Seine river from the lower house of parliament in the French capital, in protest against the overhaul of the pension system.

Flight Disruption

Separately, France’s aviation authority ordered airlines to cut 30% of flights at Paris’s Orly airport and 20% at Marseille-Provence airport, in southern France, on Monday after several unions gave notice of a strike. Disruption is expected to begin Sunday evening and last until early Tuesday.

A further day of nationwide strikes has been called for Thursday by a group of the country’s main unions, who have pledged to keep up the pressure on Macron to back down.

bloomberg.com 03