Strike of March 10: the disruptions expected Friday in transport

RATP, SNCF, fuel, electricity… In several sectors, employees have embarked on a renewable strike against the pension reform.

Par Thibaut Deleaz

stop or still? While the next day of mobilization against the pension reform has been set for Saturday March 11 by the unions, certain sectors have engaged in a renewable strike to maintain pressure on the government.

Transport, refineries and the energy sector have been idling since Tuesday. The specter of 2019, when transport had been paralyzed for several weeks, however, seems to be receding.

If the mobilization is strong in the street, it causes much less disruption than four years ago during the previous reform attempt. What to expect for this Friday, March 10, weekend departure day? We take stock.

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Transports

The railway workers of the SNCF embarked on a renewable strike, and, if the situation has improved slightly since Tuesday, it remains degraded. SNCF already warns that “traffic will remain disrupted on Friday March 10”. The forecasts will be detailed on Thursday afternoon.

Renewable strike at the RATP also, at the call of the inter-union. Here too, traffic is improving day by day on the Paris metro and the RER, but remains degraded. The board is still planning disruptions on Friday March 10, but “on a few metro lines only”. It will be “almost normal” on RER A, but still “very disturbed” on RER B. The details of traffic conditions will be known on Thursday afternoon as well. Note that buses and trams have been running normally for the past few days, and that this should continue this Friday.

In the other large cities, no major disturbances to report, the movement having, most of the time, not been renewed beyond Tuesday.

Airports

Like Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation asks companies to cancel flights preventively at most major French airports. In detail, the flight programs must be reduced by 20% at Roissy, and 30% at Beauvais, Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Paris Orly, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes, Nice and Toulouse. Cancellations that do not exclude delays on maintained flights.

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Fuel

In the refineries, the unions want to hold on to dry up the service stations and paralyze the economy. On a renewable strike, they too succeeded in blocking fuel shipments on Tuesday and Wednesday and intend to continue. For the moment, the oil groups want to be reassuring and ensure that no shortage of gasoline is on the horizon, although some service stations are already dry.

Energy

The energy and gas sector, targeted by the reform which provides for the abolition of the special regime for future hiring, is also very mobilized. The EDF strikers have managed to lower, since Friday, the electricity production of several thousand megawatts, without consequence on the network. Those of Enedis carried out wild and targeted power cuts, in particular in Annonay, the stronghold of the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt.

On the gas side, no impact for customers, but a drop in the volume sent from underground storage sites. The strikers are also blocking LNG port terminals: liquefied natural gas has therefore no longer been landed from ships since Tuesday.