Trade unions are calling for an increase in retirement pensions to cope with the rising cost of living and health.
Increase pensions, strengthen and “humanize” public services, especially in rural areas: an inter-union of retired people, including the CGT, FO or the SNES-FSU, called on Monday for a day of national mobilization on Thursday.
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Retirees will be pounding the pavement in around twenty large cities including Paris, Marseille and Lyon. The Parisian procession will leave at 2:00 p.m. from Place de la Bastille to head for the Republic. Inflation and the time for the balance sheet of Emmanuel Macron’s five-year term have motivated the inter-union to take to the streets, three months after the last day of national action for retirees.
“We don’t want a bonus, but a real increase in retirement pensions”, declared during a press conference Marc Bastide, secretary general of the UCR-CGT. Faced with the rise in the cost of living, the intersyndicale called for the “reindexing of pensions on the evolution of wages” and one “catching up” the pension freeze. The inter-union regretted policies “anti-retirees” carried out, according to her, by the outgoing government. “Retirees are only adjustment variables in budget control”said Marc Bastide.
“Autonomy Support”
The cost of health is singled out by pensioners’ unions. Among their grievances is the increase “huge” the price of supplementary health insurance, which leads to the “pauperization of pensioners” according to Marylène Cahouet, from the national office of the SNES-FSU. Thus, the general secretary of the UCR-CGT demanded the “support for autonomy by Social Security, and the creation of a social service for autonomy.”
Unions and pensioners’ collectives are also asking the State to strengthen the presence of public services and reinvest in rural areas, to prevent pensioners from finding themselves “helpless” by digitizing procedures.
Strike at the RATP on March 25
The main trade unions of RATP agents are calling for a new day of strike on March 25 after a previous mobilization on February 28. The unions are demanding a 3% increase in wages for “deal with inflation and defend purchasing power in Île-de-Franceand dispute the 2.7% proposed by the RATP, claiming that it is in fact only a real increase of 0.4%. Another demand, the opening up to competition for bus networks, which is pushing organizations to mobilize to assert their disagreement.
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