PARIS – TotalEnergies service station attendants in France went on strike on April 17 to protest against rising fuel costs, demanding the oil giant, which owns a quarter of the country’s service stations, raise salaries.
The company said in March it would cap prices at pumps in mainland France to help customers after the Iran war pushed oil prices to their highest levels in years.
“Total’s employees are receiving no support to cope with this surge in fuel prices, and this needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency,” secretary general Sophie Binet of France’s General Confederation of Labour (CGT) told France 2 television on April 17.
Ms Binet also reiterated a call for the government to increase minimum wages.
A spokesperson at TotalEnergies said the company had identified only seven stations affected by the strike, representing about 4 per cent of its sites.
In a statement, the CGT union, which represents workers in almost 200 TotalEnergies service stations across France, asked for relief from petrol costs for its workers and an increase in their salaries. It did not state the level of the requested salary increase.
The strike coincides with a heavy travel period in France with many families on the road as schools let out for spring holidays in parts of the country, including the region around Paris.
Monthly minimum wages in France are set at around €1,800 (S$2,700) gross and €1,450 net.
“With an average wage of around €1,600, we can’t even afford to come to work anymore,” the workers’ statement said.
The French government said on April 14 it is considering a cap on fuel distributors’ margins, meeting resistance from the distribution industry.
“We are striking to be able to fill up and go to work,” workers at the Southern Poitou-Charentes service station in western France wrote on a sign the CGT posted on its Facebook account.
“We want to work but not at a loss,” another sign said. REUTERS