PARIS (Reuters) – Roads blocked, oil refineries disrupted, planes grounded, trains halted – unions this week take toughest yet response to President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise retirement age threatens to shut down the French economy.
The first action is scheduled for Monday, when truck drivers are asked to block major thoroughfares and interchanges in a slow-moving action called Operation “Snail”. The union is planning an indefinite strike on national rail transport starting Monday night.
The government is gearing up for the biggest turmoil on Tuesday, with strikes expected in several sectors and protests against pension laws planned in cities across France. The reform, which would raise the legal retirement age from his 62 to his 64 and require him to work 43 years to receive his full pension, is currently being debated in parliament. “The strike will have a very strong impact,” Transport Minister Clément Beaune told local broadcaster France-3 on Sunday. “We know it will be a real headache for many.”
Complex pension calculations are central to President Macron and his efforts to keep the French economy competitive on a global scale. Centrist, pro-business governments say the pension system needs to stay healthy as the population ages and the birth rate declines.
Opponents, who make up the majority of French voters, say the change threatens hard-won French rights, according to a poll. Left-wing lawmakers say corporations and the wealthy should instead pack more to keep the system going. The bill has sparked the most lively debate in the French parliament in years.
It is currently being debated in the conservative-led Senate. The bill is due to be voted on by the end of this week in the upper house of parliament, and Republicans said they would vote alongside Macron’s centrist supporters to raise the retirement age.
France’s civil aviation authority has asked airlines to cancel 20% of flights at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport and 30% of flights at Orly on Tuesday, in addition to cancellations in other cities. Did. Trains to Germany and Spain will be halted on Tuesday, and trains to and from the UK are expected to drop by a third, according to railway authority SNCF. The far-left union CGT is also calling for strikes on Tuesday at factories producing Renault, Peugeot and Citroen cars, Airbus planes and other factories. The dockworkers’ union has threatened to block the port on Wednesday.
Laurent Berger, leader of the more moderate CFDT union, called for a “very strong day of action” with “so many people on the streets” on Tuesday.He called for more than 250 demonstrations across France. said to be organized. He added that the unions would then hold a meeting to decide on the next steps in mobilization.
Unions have organized France’s largest protests in decades since the bill was introduced in January, but this week has proven particularly difficult. Women-focused protests and the impact of pension reforms on working mothers are expected to coincide with International Women’s Day on Wednesday.
And on Thursday, a union representing students who aren’t even in the labor market is trying to mobilize young people to take to the streets to voice their concerns about their pension rights.
The bill is likely to be eventually approved by the Senate, but unions say this week’s strikes and protests will put pressure on the government to make concessions as the bill is expected to go through a complicated legislative process.
