Strikes at two fuel depots in the southern Rhône region and Normandy have been extended, according to the CGT trade union. The French government says measures are in place for things to get back to normal in time for holiday departures.
"The determination of the strikers is intact," said the CGT union official Pedro Alfonso, denouncing government requisitions made "without respect for the Labor Code".
Alfonso between 120 and 130 employees are on strike, which represents 90 percent of the services responsible for fuel deliveries.
Employees at the Feyzin site in the Rhône will be invited to vote on the continuation of the movement on Monday.
Six staff members, strikers or temporary workers, were requisitioned on Saturday he said.
To try and ease the shortage, the government has used requisitioning powers to force some strikers back to open fuel depots -- a move that has infuriated unions but been upheld in the courts.
Work has resumed at several TotalEnergies refineries and fuel depots, after an agreement negotiated last week between two unions and management.
Strike action at two Esso-ExxonMobil refineries also ended last week, after a pay deal between management and moderate unions which represent a majority of workers.
However, the CGT has not signed any agreement and two sites continue their strike, in Gonfreville near Le Havre, Normandy until 27 October and Feyzin until at least Monday.
10 percent increase
Employees taking part in the movement are demanding a salary increase, in the face of inflation and the giant profits reaped by the oil group.
The CGT wants a 10-percent pay rise for staff at TotalEnergies, retroactive to the start of this year.
It says the French group can more than afford it, citing TotalEnergies' net profit of $5.7 billion (€5.7 billion) in the April-June period as energy prices soared with the war in Ukraine, and its payout of billions of euros in dividends to shareholders.
Service stations are facing significant supply difficulties because of the strike movement launched on 27 September in the refineries and depots of TotalEnergies, even if an improvement has been noted in recent days.
According to the government, 13 percent of stations were short of diesel or gasoline on Friday evening, against 16.9 percent the day before.
However, several media outlets have suggested that these official figures have been underestimated.
Domino effect on economy
The strike action has forced many filling stations to close and had a knock-on effect across all sectors of the economy.
Faced with the fuel shortages, many people have started to cancel holidays ahead of the autumn school break, which has been impacting on the country's tourism sector.
"I'm leaving for the weekend and I've done two stations before where there was no petrol," Mathieu told the press.
"I didn't use my car for as long as possible and worked from home," said Mickael as he waited in a long queue to fill up in a suburb southwest of Paris, before leaving for holiday in Deauville, northern France.
The motorway groups (Vinci, Eiffage, Sanef) have all announced that they are able to supply fuel at the service stations in their network, which are around 90 percent supplied.
The government promised on Friday that "the busiest service stations in the context of holiday departures will be served as a priority".
It also called for the end of "prefectural ration orders" and mobilised "tank trucks from the operational energy service of the Ministry of the Armed Forces" in the most tense areas, according to a press release on Friday.
The CGT union said on Friday it would stage new national strikes on 27 October and 10 November to demand higher wages, after a strike on Tuesday that disrupted public transport and other services, although not as severely as many had forecast.
The inter-professional protests are the latest sign of growing pressure on President Emmanuel Macron as he seeks to push his reformist agenda through parliament, in particular an increase of the retirement age to 64 or 65 from the current 62.
Nuclear strike called off
Meanwhile, labour unions and state electricity group EDF said on Friday a weeks-long strike at several of the country's nuclear power plants would be lifted after a pay deal was reached.
The strike, launched on 13 September, threatened to delay efforts to bring over half of France's nuclear reactors back online, just as the country is facing potential power restrictions and shortages from Russia's clampdown on natural gas exports to Europe.
The pay deal for the nuclear sector will see a five-percent wage hike for the lowest earners, while managers will get a 2.5-percent bump plus bonuses that have yet to be finalised, said union official Franck Redondo.
"If the deal is ratified by unions on Monday, for us the matter is closed. Everyone will be back and working all out to get these plants back online," said Redondo, an FO union official at the Gravelines nuclear plant in northern France, the biggest in western Europe.
