As a result of the rise in consumer prices, a movement of workers’ struggles has been developing in France since September which, although it has not reached for now the force of that of December 2019 against pension reform, has an extension and intensity that is by no means negligible.

The strikes are all for wage increases and almost always to the bitter end, in France they are called "renewable" (reconductible), due to the fact that their continuation is decided by the assemblies at the workplaces. In fact, in many cases, these strikes have forced companies to anticipate what in France are called Compulsory Annual Negotiations (NAO), concerning economic aspects. Beyond the results, generally inferior to the initial demands, there is no doubt that they gave a partial protection to the workers from the erosion of the purchasing power of their wages.

They were generally led by the workplace structures of the CGT – in the case of the petrochemicals the trade federation, the combative FSIC CGT – which in some cases were joined by those of Force Ouvrière and Solidaire-Sud.

There has been a tendency for the strikes to spread between companies and categories, but for the time being the action of the collaborationist leadership of the CGT, that of the openly pro-union unions such as the CFDT, CFTC and CFE-CGC, and the repressive action of the French bourgeois State have been sufficient to stop it from converging and growing into a general movement.

The most important strike, that of the Exxon Mobil and Total petrochemicals, which lasted between 22 and 35 days depending on the plants, was organized by the FNIC CGT, while the CFDT – the majority in both groups – sabotaged it from the beginning, along with the CFE-CGC, the cadres’ union.

The FNIC CGT asked for the support of the confederal CGT by extending the strike for wage increases to the other categories, with the proclamation of a general strike, which in France they call inter-professional.

The confederal leadership of the CGT did not deny this support but deployed mobilisations that were more symbolic than real tests of strength. It proclaimed a first day of inter-professional mobilization on Thursday 29 September, two more on Tuesday 18 October and Thursday 27 October, and a fourth on Thursday 10 November.

The first one on 29 September was called not only by the CGT, but also by Solidaires SUD and FSU (Fédération Syndicale Unitaire). The one of October 18 was joined by Force Ouvrière. That of 27 October was called by the CGT alone, as was that of 10 November which, despite a successful strike in transport, particularly at RATP, mobilized few workers.

The most combative sectors of the CGT have denounced the lack of serious preparation by the leadership and the majority of the union of these days of general mobilization, focused on demonstrations instead of strikes, with few workplace and territorial assemblies: a cosmetic action that falls within the framework of the idea of collaborationist trade unionism, albeit disguised, which places the bargaining table and not the struggle as the pivot of its action. In addition, these combative sectors of the CGT, correctly argue that the general strike, in order to strengthen itself, should not be limited to one day, but should also be "renewable", that is, not with a predetermined deadline.

For some time now – since the end of the control of the bogus French Communist Party (PCF) over this union, at the turn of the century – the CGT no longer has the characteristic of a centralized organization, and the territorial, company and sectoral structures have been left with a great deal of autonomy. The decisions taken by the collaborationist confederal leadership are in no way binding. This, on the one hand, has allowed the development of combative groups and sectors within the union, but on the other hand prevents the organisation of real general actions. The collaborationist leadership of the confederation, headed since 2015 by Philippe Martinez, formerly head of the collaborationist metalworkers’ federation FTM CGT, convenes general actions without organizing them, justifying itself with the claim that the impetus for their success must come from the base. With the loss of the leadership’s ability to firmly control the grassroots through a sufficiently robust tradition and political organisation that is falsely workers’ as the PCF was, this disarticulation of the union machinery plays in its favour. That this is just a strategy to keep the union on the tracks of class collaborationism is confirmed by the affair of the CGT PSA at the Poissy factory, which we report on below.

In a number of cases, such as at Exxon Mobil and Total, the strike was led by the CGT alone, despite its minority membership. The largest union in the private sector, nationally, is the openly collaborationist CFDT.

Naturally the bosses, with their press, did not let slip the opportunity to speculate on this aspect, pointing at the striking workers as a minority of extremists who were undermining the "right to work" of the majority of workers and holding society as a whole in check, where the economic sectors affected by the strike affected general aspects of social life, as in the case of the petrochemical industry.

But these were still substantial minorities of workers, which confirms that the democratic principle is idealistic, alien and contrary to the class struggle, which is based on the principle – not idealistic and proper to real social life in capitalism – of force: a sufficiently organized and robust minority of workers can conduct victorious strikes, drag along part of the undecided fellow-workers and render the scabs impotent.

CFDT and CFE-CGC, at Exxon Mobil and Total, waited until the strike showed signs of weakening, at which point they concluded wage agreements that fell short of the strikers’ demands, but which effectively ended the strike at most plants. After the strike ended they took credit for the wage increases, claiming that they were the result of the negotiations and not of the strike. A practice similar to that observed many times in Italy, by CGIL Cisl and Uil against SI Cobas, even if with smaller scale struggles.

Below are brief descriptions of the major strikes.

Exxon and Total Petrochemicals

At Esso-Exxon Mobile the strike began on 20 September, promoted by the CGT, a minority in the group. On 27 September, the chemists’ federation, the FNIC CGT, extended the strike to TotalEnergie, where the strike was joined by 70% of workers at fuel depots and refineries, including the Normandy refinery, the largest in the country. Workers from contracting companies also joined the strike. The workers have demanded a 10% increase, the unblocking of recruitment and investment in maintenance and renovation of plants now obsolete.

Over the last 30 years, two thirds of the refineries in France have closed and only seven remain. The plants have not been renovated. Companies make the maximum profit in the exploration-production process so that most of the profits are allocated – apart from paying dividends to shareholders – to investments in exploration, particularly offshore.

The strike had an impact on refinery and service station supplies and consequently on the entire national economy. Faced with the fuel shortages, the government decided on October 12 to resort to pre-call-outs at Exxon Mobil depots to unblock the departure of tanker trucks. The walkouts drew protests from CGT and FO union leaders, who denounced them as a violation of the right to strike. If the worker did not comply with the precepts, he was punishable by up to 6 months in prison and a fine of 10,000 euros.

This repressive action of the bourgeois State was accompanied by the action of the openly pro-union trade unions who signed downward agreements with the companies.

On October 10, at Exxon Mobil, CFDT and CFE-CGC signed a wage agreement well below demands. On October 14, the assemblies decided to break the 23-day strike.

The next day, Saturday, October 15, the administrative courts validated the preceptions.

On October 13, while the strike continued in all the main plants, Total began negotiations with all the unions by giving a majority weight, in the delegations, to those not participating in the strike movement, namely CFDT and CFE-CGC. The next day these two unions signed a downward agreement, with a 7% wage increase for 2022 and 2023.

The CGT Total delegates’ coordination decided to continue the struggle, rejecting the agreement. The strike continued until 18 October – the second day of national mobilisation proclaimed by the CGT, Force Ouvrière, Solidaire SUD and FSU – but was then broken off in the majority of plants, except at the Gonfreville-L’Orcher refinery in Normandy near Le Havre, the largest in the country, and at the Feyzin depot near Lyon, where it continued until 2 November!

PSA Stellantis and the Poissy CGT PSA affair

All factories of the PSA group (Pegout, Citroën, Stellantis), including the two most important ones in Sochaux and Mulhouse – near the border with Switzerland and Germany – were hit by strikes on September 27 and 28 involving some 4,300 workers. French car factories had not seen similar strikes since 1989. The demands were again for wage increases.

While this first step was being taken towards the return to struggle of this important sector of the working class, the collaborationist leadership of the CGT’s metallurgical federation, the FTM CGT, did not hesitate to sink an attack – begun in 2021 – against a combative sector of the union, represented by the CGT’s factory structure at the PSA in Poissy.

This factory, located about 30 km northwest of Paris, has been in existence for 60 years. It first produced for Simca-Chrysler, then for PSA Peugeot-Citroën, and now for Stellantis and employs 3500 workers.

The factory CGT claims to have 270 members – some of whom are former workers from nearby PSA Aulnay who led a four-month strike against the plant’s closure in 2013 – and has often clashed with the FTM CGT leadership.

In November 2021 the CGT PSA in Poissy convened an extraordinary congress of the factory structure: 193 union members and representatives of 12 of the 15 CGT factory sections of the PSA Stellantis group were present but the federation leadership did not want to send its representatives. The congress confirmed confidence in the shop stewards.

A month later, the national leadership and the territorial (departmental) structure of the FTM CGT organised another congress attended by 137 members, including 56 from the CGT PSA in Poissy, which revoked the mandate of the Central Trade Union Delegate of the CGT factory Jean Pierre Mercier and, in open violation of the CGT statutes, created a new factory structure of the union.

Six months later, last June, an assembly of CGT delegates from the PSA Stellantis factories that took place at the FTM headquarters on the confederal CGT premises in Montreuil, near Paris, opposed by a large majority – 223 votes in favour and 31 against – the decision to revoke Jean Pierre Mercier’s mandate.

The FTM management then decided to settle the matter by taking 16 delegates of the CGT PSA in Poissy to the administrative courts, requesting their exclusion from the union.

The court of Bobigny – near Paris – met on October 20 to address the issue. Outside the courthouse, a presidium was held in the presence of 500 delegates and members of the CGT, in support of the PSA factory section of Poissy. The decision of the court will be taken not earlier than 8 December.

The FTM CGT has 60,000 members, it is the third category federation of the CGT and is one of the pillars of the line of class collaboration of this regime union. It was one of the most timid to join and organize the inter-professional strikes of September 29, October 18 and 27.

Airbus and aeronautics subcontractors

On Thursday, October 6, for the first time in the company’s history, workers at Sabena Technics, which works under contract to Airbus, went on strike. The company is located in the so-called Blagnac-Cornebarrieu aeronautical basin, near Toulouse, one of the main industrial districts in France.

The strike was promoted jointly by Force Ouvrière and CGT to obtain a bonus increase in line with the other aviation subcontractors in the basin. All workers, including temporary workers, took part and it lasted four days, until 10 October.

The strikers were able to count on the experience of the former workers of ATE, a company that had closed down and from which several workers had come, who had already gone on strike against their former management. This allowed, for example, to have a well-organized picket line from the first day and to distribute leaflets to the workers of this large industrial concentration.

The strike was thus an opportunity to forge links with trade union activists from other companies in the industry, such as Satys, AHG or the client Airbus.

On Wednesday 12 October, several dozen workers from Daher Logistics in Toulouse, a logistics company that subcontracts for Airbus, transporting parts for assembly, went on strike. The demands were for a 10% wage increase and a 1000 euro bonus and the strike lasted three days.

A strike began on Tuesday 18 October at the FAL A320 in Toulouse, the plant where the final assembly (Final Assembly Line) of the Airbus 320, the European manufacturer’s best-selling aircraft model, is carried out.

The demand was the same as for the petrochemicals, a 10% increase. The strike was supported by the majority of the workers and supported by the factory CGT but opposed by the Force Ouvrière factory structure – the majority of workers at the plant – by the group structure (FO Airbus) and by the trade federation FO Metallurgy Federation.

This was in apparent opposition to the confederal leadership of Force Ouvriere which had that day joined the inter-professional strike together with CGT and Solidari SUD. The strike lasted three days, interrupted by the assembly on the afternoon of Thursday, October 20.

Workers at the Atelier Industriel de l’Aéronautique (AIA) in Clermont-Ferrand, in central France 159 km west of Lyon, which works for the French armed forces, also went on strike on 18 October.

Since Friday 21 October, Daher workers at Bordes, Tarnos, Le Haillan, St Médard en Jalles and Rosny sur Seine have been on strike, demanding 5% wage increases. While the strike at Daher Logistic in Toulouse had involved a few dozen workers but remained isolated, now the movement involved hundreds of workers on five sites, was nationwide, but lowering the wage claim from 10% to 5%.

The strike lasted for 5 days. It was particularly strong in Bordes, where the workers of Saran, where helicopters are assembled, joined in. Nearly 500 strikers gathered each day in front of the plant.

A strike began on Tuesday 25 October at the Villefranche-de-Rouergue (Aveyron) plant of Blanc Aéro, a manufacturer of aeronautical fasteners, owned by Lisi Aerospace, a metalworking giant with 21 production sites in 9 countries.

After an NAO (Compulsory Annual Negotiation) meeting organised on 18 October, the CGT had set an information assembly for the workers on Monday 24. At the end of this meeting, the evening shift workers walked off the job at 10 p.m., with 95% of them on strike. The strike was then extended to the morning shift and then to the afternoon and evening shifts. Prior to the strike, the CGT had conducted a consultation to demand an increase of €220 gross. The management’s proposals fell far short of the workers’ expectations.

These different struggles raised the question of the unity of the workers of the entire aviation production chain, which in recent decades has been divided sol the subcontracting system. The mutual support between the strikers Daher and Safran at Bordes was a first step in this direction.

Other strikes

From 19 October to 27 October, a strike has affected the industrial bakery giant Neuhauser, first in the two main factories of Maubeuge, on the border with Belgium, and Folschviller, in the department of Moselle on the border with Germany, then extending to four other factories, for a total of six out of eleven factories on strike. The strike had repercussions on the distribution sector, as denounced by the director of human resources of the Lidl group in France. The workers finally got a bonus of one thousand euros.

Ten days of strikes have hit EDF, the State-owned electricity generation and distribution company. 14 out of 18 nuclear power plants, 24 out of 58 reactors were affected. Workers finally got a 200 euro raise.

On Tuesday 25 October, a week-long strike began at the private clinic of "Toutes Aures", near Bordeaux. Most of the workers are women and precarious workers, very young and they went on strike for the first time. A nurse in the night shift is alone to assist 30 patients. Because of the strike, the entire operating room schedule was cancelled, i.e. more than 300 operations.

Several RATP depots in the Île-de-France (the Paris region), SNCF sites (the Landy technical centre site, the Gare de Lyon) also went on strike. Worldline, the company specializing in electronic payments that is part of the CAC40, had many sites affected by strikes. Workers at the Geodis logistics center in Gennevilliers, near Paris, have been on all-out strike since October 17.

Other strikes affected workers at Ari Liquid (industrial gases), Leroy Merlin, Ponticelli Frères (industrial piping and boilers).