New engine put back into service as negotiations suspended

While Guadeloupe is suffering major power cuts due to a strike by EDF agents, negotiations in the archipelago between the energy branch of the CGTG and the management of EDF Production électrique insulaire (PEI) have been suspended. But a “fourth engine” the Jarry diesel power plant will be started “at peak times to prevent power cuts in the area”said FE-CGTG Secretary General Jimmy Thelemaque.

The strike at EDF-PEI, EDF’s electricity production subsidiary, began on Monday, September 16. Negotiations, which resumed on Thursday, were interrupted in the middle of the afternoon on Friday. The strike led to the shutdown of the power plant’s engines, and the operator says it is carrying out “rotating load shedding” For “avoid a general accident (blackout)”The consequences of these cuts are numerous: water cuts, school closures or slowed business activity.

The social conflict concerns the implementation of an agreement signed at the beginning of 2023, after sixty-one days of strike by the same agents, who were demanding that their contracts and their remuneration be brought into line with labor law, in particular five years of unpaid wage arrears.

“The FE-CGTG requested within ten days” the presence of a company executive from Paris, the union said in a statement, arguing that “The director in Guadeloupe does not have the sufficient level of responsibility to engage EDF-PEI”For its part, the company regretted, in a press release, “this breakdown of negotiations” and argued “have made all payments by this date” related to the protocol.

At the end of the discussions, which are taking place under the supervision of the State services, Ludovic De Gaillande, director of the labor department of Guadeloupe, confirmed, on the public radio Guadeloupe La 1ère, much lower load shedding. And this, despite “the CGTG’s decision to leave the negotiating table”according to him.