The European Union wants to sign a free trade agreement with the Latin American countries of Mercosur by the end of the year. To the great dismay of France. Prime Minister Michel Barnier even tried to assert Paris’ position during his trip to Brussels yesterday (Wednesday). Meanwhile, social discontent is growing in many sectors in France, from the automobile industry to the civil service, including aeronautics and distribution where social plans have been announced.
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Unions from several sectors have launched calls for strikes and mobilization for the coming weeks to protest against social plans and against the consequences of a draft budget – still under discussion in Parliament – which provides for 60 billion euros budgetary effort to redress public accounts in the red.
This is the planned increase in the solidarity tax on plane tickets which mobilizes airline pilots this Thursday, November 14. The system will increase tax rates on plane tickets for all destinations, except French island and overseas territories. However, the strike should not cause significant disruptions to flight schedules, the airlines indicate.
Less than a year after their historic mobilization, farmers for their part are angry. They denounce bureaucracy and loss of income with poor wheat harvests and a renewed health crisis on livestock farms. The prospect of a signing of the agreement with Mercosur further fuels their anger. The unions have launched a call for national mobilization from November 18 at the time of the G20 in Brazil.
The unions of the SNCF railway company are also calling for a stop to work from November 20 to 22. Another notice, this time for an indefinite strike, was filed from the evening of December 11. The railway workers are calling for a moratorium on the dismantling of the rail freight division, and are protesting against the terms of opening regional lines to competition.
The public service on the grill
In the Civil Service also, two of the main unions, FO and the CGT, called for a “strike” on Thursday after the failure of a meeting with Minister Guillaume Kasbarian, raising the possibility of mobilizations in early December. Guillaume Kasbarian who, yesterday, congratulated Elon Musk, appointed by Donald Trump to head a ministry of “ government effectiveness ” For “ dismantle government bureaucracy “. On X, Guillaume Kasbarian commented, in English: “ Congratulations for accepting this great challenge @elonmusk! I look forward to sharing with you best practices for combatting excess bureaucracy, reducing paperwork, and rethinking public organizations to improve the effectiveness of public officials,” reports Agence France presse.
Cascading social plans
Furthermore, many companies have announced social plans, and thousands of jobs are at stake at Michelin and Auchan. “ Economic conditions are tightening noticeably », recognized the Minister of Labor Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet in the Sunday Journal (JDD). She reports “ an acceleration in the number of collective procedures opened by companies in difficulty. With, in addition, structural transformations in the automobile or mass distribution “.
Also readFrance: employee outrage after the elimination of more than 3,600 positions at Michelin and Auchan
“ There will probably be announcements of site closures in the coming weeks and months », had already warned the Minister of Industry Marc Ferracci on Saturday. According to the general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet, in La Tribune Sundayin industry alone, “we are at the beginning of a violent industrial bloodletting”. The CGT has drawn up a list of social plans which “ closes on 200 » : « It is estimated that more than 150,000 jobs will disappear, probably more »according to Ms. Binet who predicts a “ domino effect » on subcontractors of « major contractors “.