Before “putting a stop” to France on March 7, the unions are organizing their fifth day of mobilization against the pension reform this Thursday, February 16, to maintain pressure on the deputies, who still hope to be able to debate the legal age. by Friday midnight, thanks to the withdrawal of numerous amendments. In the middle of the school holiday period, with the exception of Île-de-France and Occitanie, participation in strikes is expected to drop sharply.
This Thursday, disruptions are limited in transport, with four out of five TGVs in circulation and normal traffic in the Paris metro. The rate of strikers was down sharply at the SNCF on Thursday, standing at 14% according to a union source, against 25% last Tuesday, 36.5% on January 31 and 46.3% on January 19, the first day of mobilization. against pension reform.
Nevertheless, 30% of flights at Paris-Orly are canceled, 20% at Toulouse, Montpellier or Nantes, where access was slowed down by a CGT filter dam. The union was planning other dams near gas storage sites, after EDF agents overnight reduced electricity production by just over 3,000 MW, the equivalent of three nuclear reactors. , without causing power outages.
Almost twice as many teachers were on strike this Thursday compared to February 7, according to the Ministry of Education, with 7.67% of strikers, a rate calculated only for the regions which are not yet on vacation. These figures only include teachers from zone C (academies of Paris, Créteil, Versailles, Montpellier and Toulouse), the others being on school holidays. The unions did not give figures of strikers, because of the vacancies which, according to them, make the figures difficult to compare.
The numbers one of the eight main unions demonstrated in Albi, symbol of this France of medium-sized cities very mobilized against the reform. ” We want to shine the spotlight on one of the defining features of this social movement. There is a France of work which wants to affirm that it exists, that it is not just the metropolises », Underlines Laurent Berger in the magazine of the CFDT. The secretary general of the CFDT also welcomed this fifth day of mobilization against the pension reform, already ” successful “, ensuring that” determination and fighting spirit are intact “.
“Keep up the pressure on MPs”
On the strength of the constant opposition of around seven out of ten French people to the reform according to the polls – and of a petition which has passed the symbolic milestone of one million signatures – the unions intend ” keep up the pressure on MPs “, according to the secretary general of the CGT, Philippe Martinez. Failing to influence the executive, the inter-union sent a letter to parliamentarians, except those of the RN, to ask them to reject the reform ” and more particularly its article 7 “, which raises the decline in the legal age of departure from 62 to 64 years.
Time is running out for the deputies who, after several days of fruitless struggle, approach the home stretch of their debates until midnight Friday, the cut-off time for the examination of the text before its transmission to the Senate. To accelerate, the left has decided to withdraw many amendments, but there are still nearly 11,000 to be discussed, including a good part before Article 7. There are “ a possible majority in the hemicycle to vote against “, wants to believe the PS deputy Philippe Brun, who hopes” get to the vote as soon as possible on this key point. A way of throwing the ball back to the government which “ does everything to avoid the debate “, Estimated the boss of the environmentalist party, Marine Tondelier, on Public Senate. A part of the left fears, however, that a vote on Article 7 will ” strike a blow at the social movement “, indicated the leader of the communist group André Chassaigne.
” They are afraid of the vote “, replied on France Inter his counterpart Aurore Bergé (Renaissance), convinced that the majority” will have the votes to get this key article across that “ returns to vote the reform “. For its part, the RN filed a motion of censure on Wednesday, in order to find out who is “ for or against the reform “said its leader Marine Le Pen on RTL.
On March 7, France at a standstill
Vote or not, the unions reserve themselves for the day of March 7, the inter-union having called for ” put France on hold “, an action supported by 58% of French people, according to an Elabe poll for BFMTV. Other actions are planned the next day on International Women’s Day.
And, while university sites were closed on Wednesday in Rennes, Nantes and Paris, student and high school organizations called on Thursday to “ harden the movement against the pension reform, with actions every Thursday until March 7, then a youth mobilization day on March 9. ” We call on young people to mobilize, to toughen up the movement and to shut down the country to make the government understand that we refuse its pension reform project. “Said in a joint statement the student unions Unef, Alternative and Fage, the high school student movement La Voix Lycéenne, or the Union of Communist Students, Young Socialists, Young Rebellious and Young Ecologists.
If the intersyndicale did not call for it, certain confederations like Solidaires are favorable to the idea of renewable strikes. The RATP unions have already announced it as well as the CGT garbage collectors.
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(With AFP)