PARIS: France’s CGT trade union denounced TotalEnergies’ conditional offer for early wage talks as “blackmail”, saying strikes that have left a third of the country’s fuel stations running short would continue until at least Tuesday.

The industrial action at TotalEnergies, which coincides with strikes at two Exxon Mobil refineries in France, comes as workers across Europe demand higher salaries to cope with surging inflation and a cost-of-living crisis. President Emmanuel Macron, whose government is under mounting pressure to act as the strike grinds on and more fuel stations run out of some products, called for a quick end to the crisis.

“Negotiations are under way and on track...I hope that in the coming hours, the soonest, this can be resolved. Blocking is not a way to negotiate,” Macron said during a visit to the Mayenne in western France. A day after TotalEnergies offered to bring forward pay talks on condition that the union ends its two-week refineries strike, the CGT said that “this attempt is perceived as blackmail by the CGT and does not guarantee satisfaction of the demands expressed and therefore the return to work”.

A CGT union representative later said the strike at the refineries would be extended until Tuesday. The union is demanding wage increases of 10%.

More than 60% of France’s refining capacity has been taken offline by the strikes, driving diesel prices higher and prompting the country to increase imports of the fuel.

Profit margins for northwest European diesel barges on Friday rose to their highest since early March.

Long tailbacks formed at fuel stations in the Paris region as drivers tried to fill up before more pumps run dry.

The energy ministry said that almost a third of service stations nationwide faced shortages of at least one fuel product on Sunday. Website mon-essence.fr said that more than 2,000 stations had run dry, citing data from about 30,000 users since Thursday.