French unions and demonstrators have taken to the streets on Thursday in widespread industrial motion against the federal government’s projected pension reforms.
President Emmanuel Macron’s administration seeks to boost France’s official retirement age from 62 — lower than much of Europe and the U.S. — to 64. That is the pinnacle of state’s second try and overhaul the pension system, after scrapping a 2019 proposal to introduce a point-based retirement plan during his first mandate as a consequence of public uproar. Macron cemented his pensions focus during this Latest Yr address, stressing, “This can effectively be the 12 months of retirement.”
The pension reform is “just and responsible” and should be carried out, Macron said Thursday, in line with Reuters.
Early indications suggest the most recent bill is proving equally lackluster with the French public, with 68% appearing “hostile” to the measure, in line with an IFOP study.
French syndical unions have made rare common front by agreeing protests against the bill.
“This reform will fully hit all employees and particularly those that began to work early, probably the most fragile whose life expectancy is lower than that of the remainder of the population, and people whose level of labor difficulty will not be recognized,” said a joint statement signed by eight syndicates, in line with a CNBC translation.
The organizations will convene Thursday evening to find out convening further industrial motion.
Rail operator SNCF warned train travel might be “severely disrupted” by industrial motion between 7 p.m. local time on 18 Jan. and eight a.m. on Friday. Reuters reports that SNCF said only between one-in-three and one-in-five high-speed TGV lines were in operation on Thursday, with limited local or regional trains running.
The strikes are disrupting traffic along the maritime route between Calais and Dover.
“We regret to tell you that sailings are currently suspended as a consequence of a National day of Motion in France.,” P&O Ferries said on Twitter, noting services would resume Thursday afternoon.
TotalEnergies Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne estimated that a short-term one-day mobilization shouldn’t result in fuel supply shortages:
“A day, tomorrow, won’t affect the functioning of refineries. Refineries stop if there are lots of days of strike,” he estimated in a BFM TV interview, in line with a CNBC translation. “Don’t panic: the stocks are full, the service stations are well-supplied.”
Philippe Martinez, secretary general of the General Confederation of Labor (GCT) union, on 18 Jan. floated the concept of cutting electricity supplies to the affluent of France. On Thursday, he appeared to melt this stance during an interview with Public Senat, when asked if there can be voluntary targeted electricity cuts to lawmakers who support the brand new retirement bill:
“It will not be in our habit to do that,” he said, describing his earlier statements as a symbolic gesture reasonably than a threat. He reiterated his objections to the reform plan and stressed the syndicates’ willingness to proceed strikes beyond the primary day of commercial motion, “It’s a primary day, due to this fact, we may have others.”
Government spokesperson Oliver Veran on Wednesday reproached the perceived threats as “strictly unacceptable,” per a CNBC translation:
He added, “Every thing that can raise pressures, threats, insults, whether on social networks or in real life, regarding targeted motion against the integrity of the functioning of a parliamentary mandate are unacceptable in a democracy and a Republic, and we condemn them.”
Laurent Bergere, secretary-general of the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT), on Thursday told BFM TV that “there should be loads of people at these protests.”
He noted, “Firstly, I expect that the employees of this country who object, they usually are many, to this retirement reform project — because they object with respect to [raising] the official retirement age to 64 years — come protest all over the place in France, across 200 locations.”
