French political leader calls to unblock refineries by force

LONDON (ICIS)–A leading French opposition politician wants the government to use force against striking workers who keep blocking refineries throughout France in a bitter dispute over labour law reforms, she said on Tuesday.

Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, a candidate for the Les Republicans party’s presidential nomination in next year’s election, said that the right to strike did not mean that workers were entitled to block refineries.

“The refineries must be unblocked, by force. We cannot give in,” she said in an interview on French state television.

She said that a relatively small number of strikers were becoming more and more violent, with a big impact on fuel supplies, while the government under President Francois Hollande was not acting. The striking CGT union was becoming increasingly radical and needed to be reformed, she added.

She said that using force would not imply that workers’ right to strike was being undermined or disrespected.

Meanwhile, French police intervened on Tuesday to unblock ExxonMobil’s refinery at Fos-sur-Mer, near Marseille in southern France, a regional police spokesman confirmed. Seven police officers suffered minor injuries.

French media reported fuel shortages at many petrol stations, especially in northwest France.

A spokesperson for a French oil industry trade group told ICIS earlier that supply disruptions had created shortages at about 10% of petrol stations.

Also, the strikes have affected cracker operations at several sites in the country but the impact on derivatives production has been patchy so far, market sources said.

Additional reporting by Cuckoo James and Nel Weddle