major blockages this Thursday? Follow the strike live

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major blockages this Thursday Follow the strike live

DEMONSTRATION 6 APRIL. Several disruptions are announced by the unions for the strike on Thursday, April 6, but the mobilization of strikers and demonstrations could be less important.

The essential

  • Top start of the April 6 strike! The unions have called on workers, young people and retirees to come together everywhere in France to strike or demonstrate against the pension reform.

  • Several disturbances are announced in various sectors, but the mobilization seems less strong and the strike less followed this Thursday, April 6: the circulation of transport is only slightly disturbed, 20% of striking teachers are expected in primary schools and requisitions limit still blockages in some refineries.

  • As for the demonstrations, 600,000 to 800,000 people could join the processions organized in more than 300 cities in France, according to the intelligence services. 60,000 to 90,000 demonstrators are expected in Paris alone and among them a thousand disruptive elements could be present.

  • To prevent certain overflows in the demonstrations of April 6, 11,500 members of the police force are mobilized throughout the country 4,200 in the capital.

  • Follow the strike and the demonstrations live.

Live

05:45 – Demonstrations in Paris, Marseille and in more than 300 cities

There are still hundreds of demonstrations – 379 according to the intelligence services – which are organized in the large and medium-sized cities of France. Paris will as always host the biggest procession, but the demonstrators have responded to many other cities since the start of the movement. The CFDT map lists all the events on April 6 as well as the places and times of departure.

05:29 – What about RATP traffic?

The strike of April 6 is almost imperceptible in the transport of Ile-de-France this Thursday. The RATP has indicated that all metros except three lines (3, 5 and 13) are operating normally. The circulation of RER A and B is not disturbed either with 3 trains out of 4 on the first line and “almost normal” traffic on the second. No disruption was reported either on bus and tram traffic.

05:15 – Disturbances at the SNCF?

Transport is often the first sector to suffer the disruption of strikes. This is still the case on April 6, but at the SNCF the disturbances are less severe than they may have been during previous mobilizations. 3 out of 4 TGVs and OUIGOs run, 1 out of 2 TERs and most Transiliens. Intercity traffic is the most disrupted with 1 train out of 4 maintained.

05:01 – Eleventh day of strike this Thursday!

The start was given to the strike on April 6, the eleventh day of protest against the pension reform. The unions hope to see many French people demonstrate in the streets or walk out in companies, but the announced disturbances seem to reflect a lesser mobilization in comparison with previous strikes.

Learn more

The places and times of departure of the processions are already known in several cities of France, in particular Lyon, Nantes, Strasbourg or Bordeaux, from the elements communicated by the CFDT. Below is a map with a very large part of the demonstrations identified by the union for the strike of April 6, 2023.

The Parisian procession will therefore leave at 2 p.m. from the Place des Invalides in the 7th arrondissement. To reach the Place d’Italie in the 13th, the demonstrators will pass through Montparnasse and Denfert Rochereau. Public transport in these areas will therefore be disrupted. The CGT hopes to see its estimate of 450,000 demonstrators raised on D-Day. On March 28, the Paris police headquarters published an estimate of 93,000 demonstrators. The slight disturbances planned by the RATP and the SNCF suggest a drop in the strike in the Ile-de-France transport sector. Apart from the main procession, other actions are planned in the capital. An action is organized at 11 a.m. at the Gare de Lyon in the 12th arrondissement. A student rally in front of the Racine high school in the 8th borough is announced at 11 a.m. as well.

A demonstration and disruptions in transport

Several strike calls are announced in transport. However, metro, RER and train traffic is planned to be “normal to almost normal” according to the RATP and the SNCF. The RATP has published its traffic forecasts in the Paris metro. For the eleventh major demonstration against the pension reform, traffic will be practically undisturbed in the Paris metro. The few lines affected by the strike will be communicated at 5 p.m. by the RATP. Buses and trams will have “normal service”.

While the strike movement should again be followed in many professional sectors (transport, education, energy, etc.), what will happen to participation in the demonstrations? On the side of the organizers, no fear of a shortness of breath is indicated. If the protest faced a drop in participation on March 28, on the occasion of the tenth day of mobilization at the call of the inter-union, with between 740,000 demonstrators according to the Ministry of the Interior and 2 million participants according to the CGT, the previous day of mobilization of March 23 had brought together 3.5 million people according to the CGT, and 1.08 million according to the Ministry of the Interior.

Since the adoption, on March 16, of the pension reform via the use of article 49.3, spontaneous demonstrations have taken place almost daily in several cities in France. A spontaneous demonstration is a demonstration that has not been declared to the prefecture or the town hall of the city concerned. In recent days, these demonstrations outside the framework of the inter-union have sometimes been marked by clashes between demonstrators and the police. Violence that could discourage some people from going to the processions on Thursday April 6…

Claire Hédon, the Defender of Rights, is invited by the prefect of police of Paris, Laurent Nunez, to observe the demonstration in the command room of the prefecture. Lawyers will be with her. This trip is a first for a Defender of Rights. It comes after “90 reports of police violence” following protests against pension reform at this independent institution. Compliance with ethics by people carrying out security activities is part of Claire Hédon’s field of action.

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