World News: French Workers Demand Energy Giant Pay Up

TotalEnergies, the French energy giant, has become the focus of two reverberating scandals as it has been accused of war crimes for refueling Russian bombers and refusing wage increases for French workers leaving the nation's gas supply dwindling.

If the conflict that is shaking the refineries of the TotalEnergies group weighs on the social climate and revives the question of wages, it is only emerging again because it has long been evaded. But a questioning of the principles of remuneration is now inevitable.


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Without a bad pun, however, it is not impossible that the social conflict that is shaking the refineries and depots of the TotalEnergies group will be an oil stain in the coming days. It is true that all the ingredients for contagion on a national scale are present: Inflation, purchasing power amputated by a meteoric rise in prices, energy crisis, limit of fiscal arrangements supposed to cushion the shock of the observed increases and especially wages unable to remedy this situation which places the France and neighboring countries on the brink of recession.

Except once the observation is drawn, a reality more significant than the others is imposed, namely the low wages currently practiced in France. The issue is not new and had already invited itself during the presidential campaign of 2007. The candidates of the time had, for one proposed the system of "Work more to earn more", for the second, the idea, once elected, to organize wage conferences in order to revalue the ratio of training / competence / salary.

Accelerators and Gravediggers

Poorly settled, placed under the bushel of economic and financial constraint, or simply discarded, the question of purchasing power, and therefore wages, has resurfaced in the light of the post-Covid situation and the Ukraine war, both accelerators of history.


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Because from now on, public authorities and companies will no longer be able to deny the need for an increase in wages at the risk of seeing demand, the main engine of growth, collapse in favor of slightly better paid savings due to the increase in interest rates by banks, savings a real gravedigger of growth because the money saved is not invested or devoted to consumption.

This wage crisis, long ruled out because of low inflation that compensated for the weakness of the latter, is therefore the stone in the shoe of an economy that was running at full speed until then, or even above. Terrorized by the cycle of a rise in inflation that would be offset by a proportional increase in wages, the government and central banks have chosen for one to still solicit the Welfare State via various interventions, (fuel price rebate, energy check ...), for the other to break growth and investment by a rise in rates that would stem the use of credit by individuals or companies.


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However, it appears that socially this duo does not work. Employees and civil servants strangled by a continuous rise in prices, call for help so as not to plunge themselves into the throes of financial difficulties when this is already not the case.

Market Economy and Levelling

However, the wage question will not be settled by a one-off increase in the wages in question, which would amount to putting a plaster on a wooden leg, at most it would make it possible to liquidate some unpaid bills and to appease social discontent for a time.

It is now necessary, in a market economy to which the labour market is subject, to rethink remuneration according to skills, responsibilities and training followed, in a meritocratic logic. Starting from this premise, the increase in wages would no longer be random or linked to any obscure principle within this or that company or institution, but the fruit of an individual and professional reality.


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To date, the obstacles are numerous because the fear aroused by such an approach is linked to the need to rethink in its entirety our remuneration system, including the sacrosanct Smic, which has become the cornerstone of wage policy. Getting out of the race to the bottom imposed by the Smic, without lowering it, which would have the effect of making those who perceive it even more precarious, rethinking work, would also be a cultural revolution that would probably motivate companies, employees, and public officials. But for now, the queues in front of the gas stations are getting longer and slowly raising the rumble of those who fear being dry.

 

Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist, recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, a press and publishing consultant, and a communications consultant.

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