Energy: unions threaten to toughen the strike against the reform of the “agent tariff”

Agents from the electricity and gas industries are threatening to resume their mobilization from October 6 and to “harden the movement” against the proposed reform of their preferential energy tariff, due to lack of a meeting in Matignon, AFP learned on Friday from union sources. At the end of a first day of massive strike, on September 15, the inter-union (CGT, CFE-CGC, CFDT, FO), received in Bercy, launched an ultimatum to Matignon, demanding a meeting with Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu before October 2.

An ultimatum reiterated in a leaflet which calls on the government “to show respect but also responsibility in a context of energy price crisis and risks to the security of energy supplies”. “We still have no sound, no image, from Matignon, despite our calls for a meeting and clarification,” Alexandre Grillat, secretary general of CFE Energies, told AFP.

“We don’t have any form of sign” for a meeting, added Fabrice Coudour, general secretary of the FNME-CGT, the branch’s leading union. Unless there is a change, he calls on electricians and gas workers to “demonstrate that they master the work tools”: “we are not going to look for the rate of strikers but we are going to show that the strike also paralyzes the system a little,” he assured. The Ministry of Energy said it was considering reviewing this “agent rate” after “a formal notice from the Court of Auditors”. This question should be decided in a ministerial decree.

“Preserve the agent rate”

“There was never any question of eliminating the agent rate,” said those close to Minister Delegate for Energy Maud Bregeon after a meeting on September 15 with the unions. “Our objective is precisely to preserve the agent rate while bringing its social and fiscal valuation into compliance with the right at the request of the Court of Auditors,” the same source added, a desire for reform rejected en bloc by the unions.

The Court of Auditors estimates its cost on average at “381 million euros per year between 2018 and 2024” for EDF SA and affirms that its beneficiaries “now pay less than 2% of the average electricity or gas prices paid by consumers”. A figure contested by certain trade unionists, who mention a rate around 10% of that paid on average by households and emphasize that it is part of the remuneration, sometimes modest, of electricians and gas workers.