“We have a date with history. The goal tomorrow is that we will be several million in the street, launches on BFMTV Fabien Villedieu, the union representative of Sud-Rail. All the objectives are there: he there is union unity, anger in the street, there is no strike in transport, which allows people to come without struggling.
The representative organizations are not calling for a strike this Saturday, February 11, the day school holidays begin for zone B (Marseille, Nantes, Rennes, Lille, Strasbourg, etc.) and the fourth day of interprofessional mobilization against the pension reform. . The unions have decided not to penalize travelers but denounce “the demagogic controversies over the right to strike” launched, according to them, by the executive. Those of the SNCF did not call to cease the activity but urged the railway workers “to participate in the demonstrations throughout the territory”.
“The government is already beginning to castigate the strikes and blockades, pointing to the crossover of holidaymakers in February, hoping to turn public opinion around. It’s a waste of time and it’s a bad calculation!”, Wrote the CGT- Cheminots, Unsa-Ferroviaire, SUD-Rail and CFDT-Cheminots in a joint press release.
More than 200 processions throughout the country
The authorities are counting on more than 200 actions organized throughout the country, bringing together 500,000 to 700,000 people, not counting Paris (where a procession will leave Place de la République at 1 p.m. to reach Place de la Nation at 7 p.m. hours). “If we are holding a demonstration on Saturday, it is to allow employees who cannot afford to strike too often, to come en masse, including with their families. But clearly, we must continue to maintain the pressure,” underlined on Wednesday the secretary general of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, at the microphone of France Bleu Sud Lorraine.
“The fight is still long, he warns. The text will not be voted on until the end of March. By then, the government must change its logic. For the moment, we are demonstrating that public opinion is behind us, we made dignified and calm, but combative demonstrations, and we must continue on this. The CGT-Cheminots meanwhile called on Friday to “amplify the demonstrations” against the reform, but also to “activate other levers available to employees”, evoking a renewable strike from March 7.
The number one union among railway workers fears a forced passage from the government and calls for the movement to be hardened to force it to withdraw its project. “Railway workers believe that, if we want to win, we have to hit at the most opportune times, so at the start of the school year, around March 7”, said Laurent Brun, the secretary general of the federation, in an interview with the regional newspapers of Ebra group to be released on Saturday.
Asked about his desire to extend the movement, including once the law has been passed, Laurent Brun agreed. “Our demands remain, he insisted. The employees will decide, but it is not because the law passes that we stop.” After two first days of mobilization well followed by the public group, the third, Tuesday, began to stall with a rate of strikers of 25% at noon (against 36% on January 31 and 46% on the 19th).