PARIS (Reuters) – French staff went on strike and marched throughout the nation on Thursday, stopping trains and shutting down electrical energy manufacturing in protest in opposition to authorities plans to lift the retirement age by two years to 64.
The strike is a serious take a look at for President Emmanuel Macron, who stated on Thursday his pension reform plan, which opinion polls present is deeply unpopular, was “truthful and accountable” and should be applied.
The protesters disagreed.
“It’s the salaries and pensions that should be elevated, not the retirement age,” learn a big banner carried by staff that opened the protest march in Excursions in western France.
Isabel, 53, a social employee, stated her job was too troublesome so as to add one other two years: “I am going to must arrange my strolling body if it will get fastened.”
Lots of of hundreds took half in rallies throughout the nation, in line with police estimates compiled by Le Monde newspaper. In Good, within the south of France, a big banner learn: “No to reform.”
Police fired tear gasoline on the fringes of a Paris protest when masked people wearing black threw projectiles at their strains. BFM TV, citing police, stated about 20 folks had been arrested.
The federal government says pension reform is important to making sure the system doesn’t go bankrupt. Suspending the retirement age by two years and lengthening the cost interval would usher in 17.7 billion euros ($19.1 billion) in annual pension contributions, permitting the system to interrupt even by 2027, the Labor Ministry estimates.
Unions argue that there are different methods to make sure the survival of the pension system resembling taxing the super-rich or growing employer contributions or these of better-off pensioners.
“This downside will be solved differently, by means of taxes. Staff shouldn’t must pay the general public sector deficit,” stated Laurent Berger, chief of CFDT, France’s largest commerce union.
Extra hits?
The problem for the unions is to show opposition to reform – and anger over the price of dwelling disaster – into mass social protest which will ultimately drive the federal government to vary course.
Union leaders, who’re anticipated to announce extra strikes and protests within the night, stated Thursday was just the start.
Pension reform nonetheless must cross by means of parliament, the place Macron has misplaced his absolute majority however hopes to cross it with the backing of conservatives.
The corporate stated prepare drivers, lecturers and refinery staff have been amongst those that left their jobs, in addition to practically 45% of workers at electrical energy large EDF. Radio France Inter performed music as a substitute of its regular programmes, and bus drivers and civil servants additionally went off work.
[1/24] French CRS riot police stand their floor amid clashes throughout an indication in opposition to the French authorities’s pension reform plan in Paris as a part of a day of nationwide strike and protests in France, January 19, 2023. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
Rail operator SNCF stated solely between one among three and 5 high-speed TGV strains have been working, with hardly any native or regional trains working.
Site visitors is off
In Paris, some metro stations have been closed and visitors was significantly disrupted, with few trains working.
On the busy Gare du Nord station, folks scrambled to catch the few trains nonetheless working as employees in yellow vests helped weary passengers.
Restaurant employee Beverly Jahent, who missed work as a result of her prepare was canceled, stated she agreed to go on strike even when she did not take part.
However not everybody understood that.
“It is all the time the identical (folks) on strike…and we’ve to place up with that,” stated Virginie Pinto, an actual property employee, as she struggled to discover a metro to go to work.
A 2007 ban on random strikes and restrictions on strikes to make sure a minimal degree of public companies restricted unions’ capability to dampen the reformist ambitions of governments.
The truth that working from dwelling is rising in popularity now due to the pandemic may additionally have an effect.
The strike halted ferry crossings between Dover and Calais, a key sea route for commerce between Britain and the continent.
Seven out of 10 major lecturers have stopped working, their unions stated, and virtually as many in secondary colleges, though the Training Ministry gave a lot decrease numbers.
In Paris, college students surrounded not less than one highschool in assist of the strike.
Information from EDF and grid operator RTE confirmed electrical energy manufacturing falling by round 10% of complete power provide, prompting France to extend imports.
Shipments blocked at TotalEnergies’ (TTEF.PA) Refineries in France, union and firm officers stated, however the firm stated a single strike wouldn’t disrupt refinery operations.
The influence on air visitors was largely restricted to a discount of round 20% of flights at Orly, Paris’s second largest airport.
Further reporting by Dominique Vidalon, Micaela Cabrera, Yiming Wu, Anthony Paun, Tassilo Hamel, Forrest Crelin, Juliette Jabekero, Geert de Klerk and Blandine Henault in Paris, Ingrid Melander in Excursions, Eric Gaillard in Cannes and Stéphane Mahe in Saint-Nazaire, Marine Strauss in Brussels; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Modifying by Nick McPhee
Our requirements: Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.