Several of France’s motorway service stations are closed on Friday as employees strike over fuel costs.
The CGT union at Argedis, a subsidiary of TotalEnergies that operates around 200 fuel stations, has called on the 3,200 employees to go on strike this Friday, April 17th.
As a result, several stations are completely closed at the start of what is expected to be a busy weekend on the roads as school holidays begin in Zone C (Créteil, Montpellier, Paris, Toulouse, Versailles).
Among those closed are the Sargé-Le Mans-Nord station on the A11, La Courneuve-Est (A1), Morainvilliers Nord and Sud (A13), and the Total station at Mont-Saint-Michel (A84).
The union is calling for fuel subsidies for employees in response to soaring prices since the start of the war in the Middle East.
“We asked Total for help, but they turned us down. We tried to negotiate, but to no avail, so we’re going on strike,” a CGT union representative told AFP. During the last round of negotiations with the CGT, management had offered a prime carburant (fuel allowance) between €15 and €40 per month, depending on the employees’ commutes.
The CGT is demanding €100 per employee per month to help them fill up their tanks, while employees earn an average of €1,600 a month and travel between 10 and 80 km to get to work.
The current price at TotalEnergies’ stations is €2.25 per litre for diesel and €1.99 per litre for petrol, and this will remain the case until the end of April.
Elsewhere, the average price is around €2.28 per litre for diesel and €2.04 for SP95, according to calculations by French media actu.fr.
Farmers’ blockades
The farmers’ union, FDSEA, is also calling for a protest against the rise in the price of off-road fuel (Gazole Non-Routier – or GNR). A rally will be held outside the préfecture in Alençon on Friday.
Meanwhile, at the start of the week, also in protest against the rise of GNR, several dozen farmers from the Coordination Rurale union began blocking access to the Lespinasse oil depot, near Toulouse (Haute-Garonne).
“We are demanding that GNR be priced at €1 including VAT, diesel at €1.50 including VAT, and a reduction in fertiliser prices,” Maxime Raud, president of the Haute-Garonne CR, told AFP.
