France’s main trade and student unions say they are ready to stage countrywide strikes and protests that could lead to major social conflict if the government’s reform plans, soon to be submitted to parliament, are not changed.
Read the original French article here.
For months now, the government of Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has been disclosing details about its plans for pension reform, which includes progressively pushing back the retirement age to 64 or 65 in line with President Emmanuel Macron’s electoral promise.
But unions, including eight of the main workers’ unions, and some student unions, said they are “ready to mobilise” to prevent the reform from being adopted in an inter-union communiqué published on Monday (5 December) – a few days before the government’s reform plans are submitted to the National Assembly in mid-December.
“The government wrongly claims that raising the legal retirement age is an imperative,” the group, which rejects the government’s plan for a parameter-based reform, writes.
The main unions are also concerned about the government’s timetable “at a time when the social, environmental and economic context is particularly difficult for a growing part of the population” as it hopes that the reform text comes into force next summer.
“The government would bear full responsibility for a major social conflict” if it were to push ahead with reform plans, the unions warned.
To show their opposition, the union group “reaffirmed their determination to build the mobilisations together” and announced “a first unitary mobilisation date with strikes and demonstrations” in January.
The unions expect a large part of the population to join them in opposing “any increase in the legal retirement age and any increase in the contribution period”.
The unions voiced criticism of the government’s reform plans forfar-right months, though they do not all agree on how to proceed.
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Questioning an unequal system
In an interview with EURACTIV, Laurent Berger, secretary-general of France’s largest trade union CFDT, said it was necessary to “question the inequality of the system we have today, which sets the same retirement age for everyone.”
Especially by choosing “to adjust careers, to take into account the hardship or the incentives to work longer for those who can”, he argued, pointing to the government not being sufficiently thorough and omitting consultation to raise the retirement age from 62 to 65 years for budgetary and financial reasons.
The country’s second-largest trade union, the CGT, is more radical as it strongly opposes any increase in the legal retirement age.
The unions have already announced a new inter-union meeting for the day the government’s reform text is officially submitted to parliament, which according to the latest information, will be around 15 December.
The unions are supported by the entire left (NUPES) and by Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, which has always been opposed to reform wanted by Macron.
On the side of the left, however, Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel told Ouest-France that a referendum on pension reform should be held since a debate is preferable to massive strikes and social mobilisations “blocking the country”.
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[Edited by Alice Taylor]
Source: euractiv.com
