Macron’s pension fight is a win for French unions

Juliette Jabkhiro and Michel Rose

PARIS (Reuters – France is returning to its former ways?

Trade unionists will march through cities Thursday to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform.

They speak of recreating 1995’s spirit, when Jacques Chirac’s government requisitioned tourist boat on the Seine to ferry commuters and backed off a pension reform after weeks of strikes in other parts of the city.

However, unions are no longer able to stop large swathes of the second-largest economy in the euro zone and force governments to reverse their course.

French strikes are less common, less disruptive, and less successful. This has left some unions searching for relevance. Protests were held over changes to the pension system that were made in 2010 and 2014. However, they were eventually adopted.

Macron insists that the French should work harder to ensure a better financial future for the pension system. The unions claim funds can be found elsewhere, and they rely on France’s generous pension benefits and early retirement age.

Eric Sellini, an official at TotalEnergies’ hardline CGT union, stated that “what we are hearing from the ground is that it is going to be huge mobilization.”

Odoxa polled 2/3 of those questioned and considered strike action justified after the government announced its plan to raise retirement age two years to 64.

Sellini claimed that unions are expecting donations to help workers whose wages get cut.

“We are getting lots of questions from people who don’t usually strike about what they need.”

DISCONTENT

The goal of the unionists is to use the discontent generated by the COVID/costs-of-living crisis to motivate their opposition to the pension overhaul to be debated in parliament within the next weeks.

“People are fed up. “People are just fed up,” Simone Legendre, member of the CFE–CGC union representing white collar workers, said. Simone Legendre was on strike this week over the wages at LCL banks and will also join the pension strike.

The largest union, CFDT has called for a halt to work and protests.

TotalEnergies and Exxon Mobil’s local units expect walkouts at their fuel depots or refineries. Vueling and Air France, both owned by IAG were asked by regulators to cancel one fifth of their flights from Paris’ second-largest airport, Orly.

However, France has lost less work days to strikes over the past five years than Britain according to data from International Labour Organization. This is not due to recent UK strikes.

SWANSONG

Philippe Martinez, the militant CGT leader and face of unionism France, will have his last chance to make a mark in the coming showdown with government officials.

The CGT was once rooted in the Communist Party. However, it has now lost its status as France’s largest union to the pragmatic and reform-minded CFDT.

Martinez, a moustachioed Martinez, stated that when there is a dangerous reform it’s a positive sign when all the unions stand together.” He spoke to France 3 television channel.

Macron has already faced one strike over his pension plans in 2019, but that was after the government shifted its focus to tackling the COVID epidemic and saving the economy.

CFDT joins the strikes now, which is different from 2019 but it isn’t yet known how long its members will remain.

Thomas Cavel, a union official from the CFDT’s railways branch, said that “the strikes are going to snowball in time, undeniably.” “Workers who were at the front lines during COVID will be hit (by reform). It’s unfair.”

The 2007 ban on wildcat walksouts and the restrictions on strikes to ensure minimum public services have limited the ability of unions to thwart governments’ reform ambitions.

Legendre, CFE-CGC unionmember, stated that “we have no illusions.” “We don’t know if the government will change, but we have to give everything we can. It’s now, or never.

(Reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro and Michel Rose; Writing by Leigh Thomas; Editing and editing by Richard Lough, Philippa Fletcher.