Posted Sep 29, 2022, 7:02 AMUpdated on Sep 29, 2022 at 12:18 PM
First day of mobilization of the new school year. To the initial slogan calling for an increase in wages, pensions, scholarships and social minima in the face of unprecedented inflation (+5.9% in August), was added the issue of pensions, which the executive is determined to move forward at full speed. This Thursday morning, Elisabeth Borne also announced to AFP that the government was going to launch a new round of consultation on pension reform in order to prepare a text “before the end of winter”.
At least 200 gathering places are planned throughout France for this first day of interprofessional mobilization since the start of the school year, according to Céline Verzeletti, confederal secretary of the CGT. In Paris, the procession will leave at 2 p.m. from Place Denfert-Rochereau, in the direction of Bastille. A police source expects 3 to 6,000 people in the capital. They were in comparison 3,200 on March 17 and 8,800 on January 27, according to the Interior.
The Ministry of National Education noted, at midday, just under 10% of strikers (9.87% on a general weighted average, 11.01% for teachers).
No CFDT or FO at the national level
On the transport side, three out of four unions, including the CFDT-Cheminots, have called for a strike at the SNCF. Disruptions are expected on the TER, Transilien in Ile-de-France, Intercités and Ouigo lines, but the TGV Inoui will run almost normally. At the RATP, where only the CGT is calling for a strike, the mobilization will be moderate with disruptions in the buses, trams and RER B, but not in the metro or the RER A.
Among the expected participants, union representatives but also elected officials, the left-wing parties members of the Nupes and the NPA having supported this day of mobilization, as well as a group of associations.
The secretary general of the second French union, the CGT, Philippe Martinez said on Tuesday to expect a mobilization “much higher than those of January and March”, noting that there were “calls to strike in many professions” . The CFDT had let it be known at the beginning of September that it would not participate in this day of mobilization. “It is company by company, branch by branch that we must act”, declared its secretary general Laurent Berger at the time.
FO, which had associated itself with most of the demonstrations organized by the CGT in recent months, this time decided to stay away. Ten FO departmental unions, however, call for demonstrations, according to Fabrice Lerestif, of the UD35.
Front against pensions
The leader of the CGT does not doubt, however, that all the unions will meet once the executive has put its pension reform project on the table, as they have succeeded in doing on unemployment insurance. The government spokesman hammered Wednesday that the pension reform was “necessary” and should come into force “in the summer of 2023”, regardless of how it is initiated. Emmanuel Macron had promised during his campaign to raise the retirement age to 65.
“All unions in France are against the idea of increasing the retirement age. This is a good starting point for us to be able to carry out days of mobilization for eight union organizations”, affirmed Philipe Martinez.
All the national trade union organizations (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFTC, CFE-CGC, FSU, Solidaires and Unsa) are to meet at Unsa headquarters on October 3. “There could be an announcement of a demonstration” at the end of this meeting, according to the confederal secretary of the CGT. The left-wing parties plan for their part to organize on October 16 a “big march against the high cost of living and climate inaction”, without the support, for a time envisaged, of the CGT.
