Picardy, Champagne-Ardenne, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes … several thousand retirees came from all over France to demonstrate in Paris, Thursday, December 2 afternoon, at the call of nine trade unions (CGT, FO, CFTC, CFE- CGC, FSU, Solidaires) and associations (FGR-FP, LSR, Ensemble et solidaires). The thorny issue of pension reform has however been postponed to 2022 by Emmanuel Macron, and pensions will be revalued by 1.1% in 2022 (against 0.4% in 2021). But the inflation forecast is 2.6% this year. Thus, retirees have lost between 10 and 12% of their purchasing power since 2014, according to the unions.
“The math is quick: between 2015, my first year of retirement, and 2020, we lost 500 euros per month with my wife. Not only has the cost of living increased, but in addition, with the increase in levies such as the CSG [la contribution sociale généralisée a augmenté de 1,7 % en 2018], we lost money. We, the retirees, are the eternally forgotten people of Emmanuel Macron’s five-year term ”, plague Jean-Pierre, former railway worker at the SNCF. If his case pisses him off, he nevertheless knows how to have ” luck “ to be married, without dependent children, and remains lucid about the situation of some of his comrades.
Like that of Jeanne, single, former secretary of the Norman town hall, who receives a little less than 1,000 euros per month. A sum that she shares with her daughter: “She is intermittent in the show, in an extremely precarious situation. I remain a parent, even if I am retired, so I try to help him financially ”, she explains. Before continuing: ” We are a whole group, came from Normandy by bus especially for the event. Today, some of us have to eat at Restos du cœur at the end of the month. “
“It has become extremely difficult to treat yourself”
If, among the demonstrators, the diagnosis is unanimous, the demands, however, seem more dispersed, despite a framework of the intersyndicale. Some would like the calculation of pensions to follow inflation exactly, in order to maintain purchasing power. Others are asking instead that pensions be indexed again to wages (as before 1987), so that they can no longer be frozen, in the event of a year of low inflation, for example. Officially, the unions are demanding an immediate revaluation of retirement pensions up to 300 euros per month, and want no retirement to be assessed below the minimum wage.
“In addition to the constant decrease in pensions, the breakdown of the public service also contributes to the reduction of our means”, indignant a demonstrator
The other major axis of demands of the demonstrators is the protection of public services – transport and hospitals at the head of the gondola – sector from which the majority of them come. A retired nurse from Vendée is indignant: “We only have one emergency doctor for the whole department! And with the merging of hospitals, we are forced to go for our consultations in Nantes, La Rochelle… It has become extremely difficult to treat ourselves. In addition to the constant reduction in pensions, the breakdown of the public service also contributes to the reduction of our means. “
Michel, a former railway worker at the SNCF, expresses his concern for the future of rail: “In the past, the arduousness of the profession was compensated by the status, which guaranteed employment, more paid holidays, a full-rate retirement earlier… For young young people who are starting out, there is none of that anymore. . ” On this Thursday afternoon, two 18-year-old girls came to testify to intergenerational solidarity arouse the curiosity of the demonstrators. “It’s important for us to show that we are united with our parents, our grandparents, and all the generations that come before us. And then, we are also the retirees of tomorrow. “