French political leader calls to unblock refineries by force
Stefan Baumgarten
24-May-2016
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
Global News + ICIS Chemical Business (ICB)
See the full picture, with unlimited access to ICIS chemicals news across all markets and regions, plus ICB, the industry-leading magazine for the chemicals industry.
Contact us
Partnering with ICIS unlocks a vision of a future you can trust and achieve. We leverage our unrivalled network of industry experts to deliver a comprehensive market view based on independent and reliable data, insight and analytics.
Contact us to learn how we can support you as you transact today and plan for tomorrow.