http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6150447.ece

EdF strikers cut power to French homes
April 23, 2009


At an electricity substation on a bleak industrial estate north of Paris a masked union militant is preparing to deprive a neighbourhood of power.

His colleague is outside, dragging nervously on a roll-up cigarette while keeping a lookout for police or security guards. “Get a move on,” he says. “And then let’s get out of here.”

A switch is pulled down, the door of the sabotaged transformer is locked and the two activists — employees of EdF, the French state electricity supplier — drive off.

In their wake hundreds of houses and a handful of businesses in Montigny-lès-Cormeilles are left without electricity for much of the morning.

It was the second time in a week that blackouts had hit the Paris region as striking gas and electricity workers adopted radical tactics to support their call for a 10 per cent pay rise and an end to outsourcing of jobs.

They are denounced as industrial saboteurs by the Government and face disciplinary action and prosecution, but say they are determined to press ahead with what they portray as a struggle against free-market forces.

After failing to prevent the partial privatisations of EdF and GdF, the gas supplier, they believe that the tide has turned in their favour because of the recession.

Redundancy plans have caused violent protests in private sector companies, left-wing students have blocked universities and unions are planning a demonstration on Labour Day. “There is a risk of revolution,” Dominique de Villepin, the former prime minister, said.

For Stéphane Miliadis, a representative of the Confédération Générale du Travail union at the EdF plant in Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, near Montigny-lès-Cormeilles, it offers a golden opportunity.

“The Government is losing control,” he said. “So now is the moment to push back the capitalist logic which has crept into the company.”

The movement got off to a slow start. “We’ve been on strike for three weeks but at first no one paid any attention at all,” he said. “It was only when some of the guys started cutting the electricity and gas that things got moving.”

The militants armed with a map showing the substations and keys to the locks can shut down power to thousands of homes in a few minutes.

Last Thursday 66,500 EdF customers lost their electricity supply, some for several hours. In Douai, northern France, two patients in intensive care had to be moved when a hospital lost power for 40 minutes.

In the Paris region the Grand-Val shopping centre suffered the same fate. “We had to turn away customers from all 48 shops,” Félix Crespo, a technical manager at the centre, said.

A bakery worker told The Times that she had been late for work “because I have an electric alarm clock and of course it didn’t go off”.

Earlier this week the activists sought to win public support by switching 350,000 customers from peak to off-peak tariffs — a 50 per cent saving. They also restored power to hundreds of households that were cut off by EdF because they had failed to pay their bills.

The power cuts have continued. In Montigny-lès-Cormeilles the saboteurs took action against EdF offices and several hundred homes were affected. A home-help assistant said: “I look after a 92-year-old woman and this sort of thing means she hasn’t got a proper meal because there was nothing to cook it with.”

As in Brazil, it seems to be very common in France to mistake rights for privileges. Like when french winemakers destroy stored imported wine, claiming they have the right of national monopoly.

Is that thread title really necessary?

No, but I find myself fucking hilarious sometimes.

even for France this is a new low!
My mum mentioned it the other week and I couldn't believe it
Fuckers are dangerous, some people life rely, very literally, on having power! fuck, that's part of why I don't ever want to live there again!

But its all fault of those capitalist pigs who dont want to overpay!!

Meh, all America is doing is looking into the future with shit like this.

I can't wait til the next time you say that again.

so no one pays attention until you sabotage infrastructure... and you see that as a good idea... that's a pretty good indication you AREN'T underpaid.

Forced Labor government work camps where they are forced to work for free are the best alternative for these miscreants.

Destroying imported wine is also catching on, or so I'm told.

Do you believe the actions of this group are merited, or that generalizing about France based on this incident is unfair?

I believe these actions are sad, wrong and to be expected at some point, and that generalizing about France on this incident is unfair and a little ignorant too. Also, i think Pegasus spends a lot of time telling everybody how much she despises France.

It's one of the reasons we her.

it's like the boston tea party

I'm not generalising, I've lived there for 24 years and still have all my family there.

nothing new there, been happening all my life...actually I think it's now happening far less.

If they want to destroy wine I've got a place to destroy it - in my tummy