“Nothing goes out, nothing goes in! » 4 a.m., Wednesday, March 8. It’s dark, cold, and raining. The inhabitants of Le Havre sleep warm under the duvet. Not Johann Senay, 44, a small trimmed goatee, lively gait, who is busy with around fifty other men, most of them, like him, in red CGT vests. In a few minutes, access to the roundabout is cut off with wooden pallets, a big tire fire is started, a plastic shelter is set up. “We have to hurry. » Quickly, before the 5 o’clock relief of the night workers. Quick, before the ballet of trucks.
On this island, adjoining the city of Le Havre, 32,000 people work, sorry, “scratch”, as we say here. In a lunar landscape made up of silos, towers, chimneys, warehouses, streets with evocative names – rue Industrielle, rue de la Chimie – connect everything that the industry has in terms of smoking, gassing, lubricants: Normandy refinery, Total Petrochemicals, Lubrizol, Yara, Safran… Here, renewable strikes have been declared. Strategic sites for the French economy have been shut down, or in reduced operation, in « mini » as they say around here. Johann, refiner and general co-secretary of the local union CGT of Harfleur and elected representatives of the CGT, gathered in a « interpro », have decided to block everything. That day, they are about 200 to distribute the four accesses to the island. Ready to hold on, they say, until the government gives in. But how long
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