Strikes blocking fuel supplies from French refineries continued for a sixth day on Monday after the Senate voted over the weekend in favour of President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular pension reform plan.
At the TotalEnergies Haulchin gas depot in northern France, several hundred union members joined a picket line and burned tires, preventing several trucks from entering or leaving, a Reuters photographer said, before police arrived and lifted the blockade.
TotalEnergies refineries and warehouses remained blocked, and 41% of morning shift workers joined the strike, according to a company spokesman.
Esso’s Fos refinery (France), a subsidiary of ExxonMobil (NYSE):XOM), was also blocked, according to a CGT union spokesman.
There was no strike in Port-Jérôme, but it could resume on Wednesday, according to the union spokesman.
The Senate voted Saturday to approve Macron’s pension reform plan, which among other measures raises the retirement age by two years to 64.
A new day of general strike is scheduled for Wednesday, when a joint committee of parliamentarians is expected to review the reform before a final vote that is likely to take place on Thursday.
