Accelerate the tempo and broaden the challenge. After a second national day of action against the pension reform which attracted a record number of demonstrators on Tuesday, January 31, the eight main labor unions and five youth movements want to further harden the balance of power with the government. They announced two new mobilizations for Tuesday 7 and Saturday 11 February. Their objective remains of course the same: to obtain the abandonment of a project which is rejected by a very clear majority of the population.
The choice of these two dates, made public Tuesday evening at the end of an inter-union meeting which took place at the headquarters of FO, in Paris, owes nothing to chance. The text of the law, which shifts the legal retirement age to 64, is examined in session by the deputies from Monday, February 6. “We really want to put pressure on parliamentarians and the government”explains Patricia Drevon, Confederal Secretary of FO.
“Not just activists”
The modalities for conducting the fight are changing a little. Not only are the initiatives linked together at a slightly more intense pace than before, but one of them will take place over a weekend, at the request of several organisations, including the CFDT. “We wanted to open up this possibility because employees tell us that they cannot afford to lose part of their remuneration by joining a demonstration during their working hours on weekdays.underlines Marylise Léon, the number two of the central cedist. For them, it’s complicated in terms of purchasing power. » “On Saturday, we will have people who do not usually demonstrate”adds M.me Drvon.
Apart from the watchwords of the inter-union, sectoral movements are, moreover, programmed. Thus, the CGT-Cheminots and SUD-Rail called for two consecutive days of work stoppage, on February 7 and 8, while pleading in favor of a “strike renewable for periods of twenty-four hours”, from mid-February, if the power in place maintains its project. For its part, the national federation of the CGT in the chemical industries also invited employees to put their bags down, for seventy-two hours, from February 6.
As usual, the count of people who pounded the pavement on Tuesday is a matter of contention. The Ministry of the Interior has identified 1.27 million (against 1.12 million on January 19, during the first mobilization). The intersyndicale, it ensures that “more than 2.5 million” of women and men walked out or marched in the street. “There weren’t just activists. We also saw people who had deserted the demonstrations, the strike”declares Murielle Guilbert, general co-delegate of Solidaires.
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