The standoff between the government and the unions is gaining momentum. The CGT has moved up a gear and has carried out “Robins Hood” actions across the country. “Several hospitals or clinics, municipal ice rinks and swimming pools, public sports centers, public interest associations, libraries, colleges, high schools, nurseries, university or HLM collective heating, public lighting small and medium-sized municipalities, social housing placed with free electricity or gas”, explains the CGT Federation of Mines and Energy in a press release.

Similarly, small businesses and craftsmen have been “placed at reduced rates”. Electricity or gas has even been restored for people who had been deprived of it “despite the winter break”. Several areas are affected by these actions, since the press release mentions the Paris region, Lille, Nantes, Lyon, Nice, Marseille, Saint-Nazaire and even “the whole territory”.

For Fabrice Coudour, federal secretary of the CGT Mines and Energies federation, “this is only the beginning: we can do ‘Robin Hood’ actions at any time”, he told BFMTV.

To justify these actions, the FNME-CGT specifies: “Through popular and positive actions, it is the general interest that we defend and our goal is also to show that we must come together to intensify the balance of power.”

January 31, 2023 will be the next strike day. One thing is certain, the unions are determined to bring together even more people than in the previous episode