PARIS (Reuters) – A national strike against planned pension reforms reduced France’s power supply and disrupted petrol deliveries from French refineries on Tuesday.
Strikes have been taking place since mid-January as unions protest against the government’s plans to make people work longer before retirement. Public transport and schools have also been affected.
Total power supply was reduced by about 4%, or 2.9 gigawatts (GW) due to decreased supply at two nuclear reactors and several thermal plants, data from power utility EDF showed.
Nuclear capacity was lowered by 890 megawatts (MW) and thermal plants were reduced by 2 GW. No disruption was listed at hydro plants, but the hydraulic power sector of EDF posted a strike notice for Thursday.
On the refining side, the shipping of petrol products from French sites was interrupted by the strike, TotalEnergies said.
The company added that there was no shortage of petrol at fueling stations and supply levels were generally satisfactory.
A spokesman for the hardline CGT union said there was disruption to deliveries at the Donges, Normandy, Feyzin, Oudalle, and Flanders sites.
An initial count showed about 75% of staff were on strike, CGT spokesperson Benjamin Tange said.
At Esso, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, about 75% of the workforce at the Fos site was on strike and blocking deliveries while the Port Jerome site was operating normally, a CGT spokesperson said.
(Reporting by Forrest Crellin, Benjamin Mallet, and America Hernandez; Editing by Kim Coghill and Christina Fincher)