Pensions: “We must not let go”, say the unions again mobilized

by Elizabeth Pineau

PARIS (Reuters) – Part of the French were again mobilized on Tuesday against the pension reform project of the government of Elisabeth Borne during a day that looked like a test for the unions, the day after the start of the examination of the text to the National Assembly in a tense atmosphere.

For this third day of national protest, and before a new opus on Saturday, the disturbances seemed to be less in transport and the public service in particular, even if the processions were still numerous everywhere in France.

According to the Ministry of the Interior, 757,000 people demonstrated in the country, including 57,000 in Paris.

“We must not let go,” urged the general secretary of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, before the departure of the Parisian procession. “Emmanuel Macron makes it a personal matter. He discredits himself in the face of the citizens of this country. He tries to scare public opinion.”

The inter-union must meet in the evening to take stock of the mobilization, which had reached more than a million demonstrators across France according to the authorities and more than two million according to the unions during the two previous days of action. , January 19 and 31.

“The next step is clearly next Saturday with a mobilization that we want to be popular, massive, festive,” said the secretary general of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, also present at the Paris demonstration. In his eyes, “it is democratic madness to remain deaf” to this challenge.

RATE OF STRIKERS DOWN

In transport, traffic was “severely disrupted” at RATP and SNCF with a rate of strikers nevertheless down compared to the previous day of mobilization. According to the Sud-Rail union, the rate of striking railway workers was 25% at midday (36.5% on January 31), with a peak of 57% among train drivers.

At EDF, the rate of strikers amounted to 30.3% of the overall workforce at midday, against 40.3% during the mobilization day of January 31. At Engie, this rate was 24.6% among employees in the electricity and gas industries (IEG) branch, compared to 40% on January 19 and 34.3% on January 31.

In education, the mobilization was also less while part of the country is on winter vacation. According to figures published at midday by the Ministry of National Education, the rate of strikers averaged 12.87% against 23.52% last week.

In the state civil service, the ministry counted 11.4% of strikers at midday, against 19.4% on January 31, and 28% on the 19th.

As for the refineries, Force Ouvrière has advanced figures of 75% to 80% of strikers in Flandres-Dunkirk, Feyzin and Donges, where the shipment of petroleum products is, according to the union, interrupted for 48 hours.

TotalEnergies for its part announced a figure of 56% of strikers and confirmed that shipments from its sites in France were interrupted at least this Tuesday.

BATTLE AT THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

In addition to the mobilization in the street, the battle against the pension reform is also being played out in the National Assembly where the examination of the amending Social Security financing bill which carries it began on Monday in a stormy climate in the face of the opposition from all the left-wing parties and the National Rally.

The outcome of the debates on this unpopular reform – 70% of French people are opposed to it according to the polls – is uncertain while the presidential camp, which does not have an absolute majority at the Palais-Bourbon, is counting on the support of the Republicans (LR ).

“We knew even before the start of the consultation that on the question of the retirement age, there would be no agreement with the trade unions. Does that mean that we should not do it? answer is so!”, said Tuesday the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, who carries the text, one of the key measures of which is the postponement from 62 to 64 years of the legal age of retirement.

“We have to do it because the system is in deficit, structurally: 12.5 billion in 2027, almost 15 in 2030, our responsibility vis-à-vis future generations is to preserve the system to transmit to them a real principle of solidarity”, he added during current affairs questions in the National Assembly.

The entourage of Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, who met the elected representatives of the majority on Tuesday morning, recognized that it was “always complicated to have support for a pension reform”, which requires “efforts” from the French.

While the debate in the Assembly is due to last until the end of next week, the president of the LR group, Olivier Marleix, declared that a “majority” of his camp, which has 62 deputies, was ready to vote reform.

(Report by Elizabeth Pineau, with Tangi Salaün, Bertrand Boucey, Benjamin Mallet and Dominique Vidalon, edited by Kate Entringer and Blandine Hénault)