The CGT trade union on Friday rejected a wage increase offer for employees of the energy giant TotalEnergies SE amid three weeks of strike action that has sparked fuel shortages across the country, says Euronews.
CGT says it’s holding out for a 10% increase, in light of soaring inflation and windfall profits for energy companies.
Two major unions, CFDT and CFE-CGC, have agreed to the proposal which promised a 7% pay rise and a financial bonus.
Strike action was lifted at two Esso-ExxonMobil refineries on Thursday and Friday, after France’s Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne intervened to ensure employees striking resumed petrol supply to service stations.
Recent figures suggest just over a third of the public supports the strike action — as consumers feel the bite of fuel-pump uncertainty.
Around 30% of the country’s petrol stations are still struggling to operate – and four out of seven refineries remain at a standstill.
Two Esso-ExxonMobil refineries said on Friday that it would take “two to three weeks” to return to “a normal operating situation.”
TotalEnergies has its head office in the Tour Total in La Défense district in Courbevoie, west of Paris, France.
The company is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.
In the 2023 Forbes Global 2000, TotalEnergies was ranked as the 21st largest public company in the world.