The FNIC CGT condemns the statements of the President of the European Trade Union Confederation ETUC-CES

The FNIC CGT strongly condemns the statements made by Laurent Berger, General Secretary of the CFDT and President of the ETUC-CES denouncing the strike action by workers in our country’s refineries.

Since the beginning of the year, petrol workers have repeatedly sounded the alarm on their demand for wage and labour negotiations.

Having been on notice since Q2 2022, employers are facing workers who, together with the CGT and FNIC-CGT unions, have launched a strong strike of more than 20 days to demand immediate wage negotiations in order to achieve legitimate wage increases.

The industry bosses are reaping huge profits and disregarding the demands of the struggling workers, while the government is threatening the strikers with requisitions to break up the movement. Laurent Berger denounced the struggle as a “preventive strike”, saying that “we don’t need a strike”, but instead “social dialogue”.

Defending the oil tycoons and the Macron government, Laurent Berger denounced the strikers and the CGT unions as responsible for the “gasoline blockade”: “When you have a trade union organisation, the CGT, which decides not to want to negotiate: we are in this situation of blockade.”

With his statements, the General Secretary of the CFDT proves, once again, that this is a strike-breaking trade union dedicated to defending the interests of the employers.

With his statements, the president of the CFDT proves once again that this trade union “international” is at the service of the interests of the EU employers, that it wants to break the waves of strikes that we see springing up all over Europe, that it denounces class militant trade unionism in order to promote “social dialogue” against the struggles of the workers.”