EDF Says French Power Flows Intact as Workers Strike

By Nicholas Comfort

April 9 (Bloomberg) -- Electricite de France SA, Europe’s biggest electricity generator, said power flows between users and producers on the grid were balanced after a one-day strike resulted in production cuts at two of its nuclear reactors.

“The balance is intact,” Capucine Leroux, a spokeswoman for the Paris-based company, said by phone. She declined to say whether EDF was forced to buy electricity on the spot market to meet demand or comment on output levels.

Labor groups switch off or curb generation at power plants as a bargaining tool in conflicts with employers, as it can force them to buy pricier electricity to meet delivery obligations. France’s Confederation Generale du Travail, or CGT, union said today that workers cut output at the Cruas-Meysse and Penly nuclear facilities in a dispute over pay.

A protest at the port of Le Havre reduced the number of vessels able to load or unload by half. Total SA said operations at its Normandy refinery weren’t affected. GDF Suez SA, operator of Europe’s biggest natural-gas network, may have to reduce supplies after employees walked out, a union said.

Unions are demanding a 5 percent salary increase and one- time payment of 1,500 euros ($1,995) for all of France’s 155,000 power and gas workers. Jean-Francois Cirelli, vice chairman of GDF Suez, saw his pay almost triple after the company was created from the merger of Gaz de France SA and Suez SA.

Broke Down

“After that, you can’t even ask why we’re striking,” CGT representative Olivier Barrault said by phone from Paris. “Nothing says that these guys will go back to their jobs tomorrow.”

Talks with EDF broke down last night after the French utility made an offer that was “clearly” below employee expectations, he said, adding that negotiations are due to resume after the strike.

EDF’s Leroux declined to say what the company will seek in the next round of negotiations. About 5.4 percent of employees took part in today’s protest, she added. Nobody from the company’s ERDF power distribution unit were available for comment.

Employees began the strike at 8 p.m. yesterday and are scheduled to return to their stations by 11 p.m. tonight, said Maurice Marion at the CGT. Typically, workers begin to lower output at nuclear plants from 9:30 p.m., he added.

Job Losses

EDF unions lowered power generation by as much as 10 gigawatts, or 16 percent of French nuclear capacity, last month as workers pressure the government into raising the minimum wage and preventing job losses.

While the CGT and four other unions haven’t issued any recommendation for the industrial action to continue tomorrow, other groups will extend the strike, the CGT said, declining to say if that will affect power generation.

Cirelli earned 1.3 million euros last year, compared with 459,234 euros in 2007, when he was head of state-controlled GDF, according to an annual report. Chief Executive Officer Gerard Mestrallet received 3.17 million euros in 2008, compared with 2.7 million euros the previous year.

Both Mestrallet and Cirelli last month said they would give up their 2008 stock options, bowing to union and government pressure amid mounting joblessness in France.

Total’s Normandy refinery was unaffected after workers walked out, company spokesman Michael Crochet-Vourey said by phone from Paris.

‘No effect’

“The strike has had no effect on operations. I only speak of the refinery,” the spokesman said, referring to the 345,000 barrel-a-day Gonfreville facility.

Total, Europe’s third-biggest oil company, announced a plan on March 10 to cut 555 refining and petrochemical jobs in France. The Paris-based company, which employs about 4,800 at its refining division, came under fire from unions and the government over the announcement, which followed record profit last year.

Employees at Le Havre, which handles almost two-thirds of French cargoes, also staged protests. Four out of 10 docked vessels were unable to unload or load cargo as of 11 a.m. local time, port spokeswoman Veronique Hauchecorne said by phone.

Five ships transporting crude and oil products to and from the port will be able to operate as usual since longshoremen for those vessels are working, she added.

To contact the reporters on this story: Nicholas Comfort in Frankfurt at ncomfort1@bloomberg.net