EDF: unions launch mobilization for a national day of action for wages

EDF unions are mobilizing this week on wages via general meetings in production plants. They plan to announce a date for a national day of action on Thursday, after the failure of negotiations on the subject with the group's leadership. The four unions representing EDF (CFE-Energie, CGT, CFDT, FO) refused to sign the agreement proposed by management on Monday January 8 and filed a strike notice which begins this Monday.

Individually, each site that wishes can organize its mobilization, “but we will have a day of national mobilization which will be announced on Thursday,” indicated Amélie Henri, national secretary of the CFE-CGC, the group’s first union. As of Monday, the Cruas power plant, in Ardèche, experienced a strike, with a blockage of maintenance activities, according to the CGT. In the fall of 2022, a strike led to delays in the work schedule at French nuclear power plants, and raised fears of shortages, in the midst of a European energy crisis.

However, the situation is significantly different this winter: while last year many power plants had to carry out work due to stress corrosion in their cooling circuits, the available capacity of the nuclear fleet increased and reached now 84.59% thanks to the work carried out, a rate higher than reached since January 2021, according to public data extracted Monday by AFP. The national strike, if it were to take place, would have no impact on the general public, the right to strike being very regulated in the sector, and would mainly have an impact on the company's finances, according to a union source. .

“In total, the general and individual increases for EDF SA lead to an average increase of 4.14% in salaries for the year 2024,” said management. They break down as follows: a general increase of 2% for all employees of the company, at branch level, an increase in seniority of 0.64% on average and a level of individual increases of 1.5%. On this last point, the CFE-CGC demanded 4%, the CGT the same level of increases as last year, i.e. 2.3%. Management underlined the “complex context of high debt of the group”, recalling that it amounts to “more than 64 billion euros”, as well as the “strong investment needs” necessitated in particular by the relaunch of the nuclear.