Doris Leblond
OGJ correspondent
PARIS, May 20 -- Workers at five of Total SA's six refineries in France are participating in a strike that began May 16 to protest the government's turning "Pentecost Monday," an established paid holiday, into an unpaid working day. A new law provides that wages for that day be set aside to provide 2 billion euros for France's elderly and disabled citizens.
Four trade unions, Confédération Générale du Travail, Confédération Française des Travailleurs, Force Ouvrière, and Confédération Française des Travailleurs Chretiéns, want Total to assume full payment of the set-aside, citing the group's "record profits" last year and in first quarter 2005. In addition, the unions said they wanted to discuss salary issues and resolve various local problems.
A Total spokesman reported that four refineries that had previously slowed down production have totally shut down: the 119,000 b/d Feyzin refinery in the Rhône area, the 328,000 b/d Gonfreville plant in Normandy, the 99,000 b/d Grandpuits refinery near Melun in northern France, and the 155,000 b/d La Mède refinery near Marseille in southern France.
The 231,000 b/d Donges refinery near Saint-Nazaire in Brittany had previously shut down, leaving only the 160,000 b/d Dunkirk refinery fully operating.
Managers and the unions were to meet May 20 to attempt to resolve the impasse.
Meanwhile, Jean-Louis Schilansky, delegate general of the oil companies' trade group, Union Française des Industries Pétrolières, said there was no immediate risk of shortage.
"The social movement concerns only a part of French refineries, and stocks make it possible to last out for several weeks," he said.
Schilansky said jet fuels would be the first affected because supplies of those products are tight. Forty percent of France's diesel oil, the leading motor fuel, comes from outside the country.
Total operates 6 of the 12 refineries in France.
The Total spokesman told OGJ, "All the necessary measures are being taken to see that the market is supplied." He did not indicate the nature of those measures.
Major oil companies in France long ago set up a product exchange system, so Esso, BP, or Shell refineries can supply Total service stations .