The French government has announced that for the first time it has ordered some refinery workers to return to their jobs in an attempt to stop a strike that has led to gasoline and diesel shortages.
The Energy Department said the order for workers “indispensable to the job” of the Esso-Exxon-Mobil fuel depot at the Gravenchon-Port-Jerome refinery in northern France “will start today.”
There are four more refineries of the Total Energy group.
The fuel crisis in France has escalated sharply, as already 2.4 thousand gas stations were left without fuel, and more than 1.2 thousand gas stations suffer from a partial shortage.
The aggravation of the crisis is still associated with the strike of local oil refineries, which want to increase wages by at least 15%. The government has already promised to restore business by force.
Source: AFP + agencies