Camille walks slowly down the Avenue des Gobelins, hampered by the pace of the Parisian procession and by a backache that has become familiar. “I’m coming out of 3 months of sick leave.” This specialist educator for disabled children has just returned to work, part-time therapy: “It’s already hard enough as it is”. Just behind a union float, in the front line of the speeches and the few songs spit out by loudspeakers at full speed, she came accompanied by a co-worker. Camille was already present for the first day of mobilization against the pension reform, on January 19. Then rebelote, Tuesday, January 31, she put on her mittens, drew a sign in red and black ink, and there she is again chanting her demands in the crowd. His worries too. For this second day of social mobilization, 500,000 people provided the Parisian procession according to the CGT, 87,000 according to the police.
At 60, “already”, Camille does not see herself continuing her work forever: “I would like to. I love my job, but I will not be able to go all the way.” Physically and mentally tiring, she regrets the “increasingly difficult” conditions and is alarmed by a reform that further disadvantages women. “A little penalized” according to Franck Riester, Camille did not need the release of the Minister of Relations with Parliament to draw the same conclusion. “It is we who most often occupy the thankless and difficult jobs”, she breathes.
Before the reform project, the sixty-year-old planned to retire in January 2025. “Already far too late”, she will have to work 6 to 8 months more to reach a full pension. “In any case, it’s too late. I’m going to be disabled by occupational medicine and that’s how it’s going to end. It’s not a good end for this job that I love. .” With the reform project, women should on average work seven months longer, compared to five for men.
Chopped careers, crumbled pensions
Like Camille, many women demonstrated for this second day of social mobilization. Concerns on the faces, but also on the placards: “Women on the front line”, “And what about us?”… In Paris, many feminist stands sprang up along the route to question, among other things, the demonstrators on the unequal character of the reform.
Often less well paid, more exposed by part-time work and by so-called “chopped” careers, the average pensions of women are “40% lower than that of men” reveals the Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and of Statistics (DREES). “Anyway, this reform reflects already existing inequalities,” said Sabrina Rostier, French teacher in a high school in Ile-de-France. Above the militant songs, the deep voice, she supports “already problematic realities” in the career of women. “Let’s also start by being better paid. We will contribute more.” The official laughs, “irony helps”.
Among the elected representatives of the left opposition, massively present in the procession, the inequality between women and men of the reform is also one of the main arguments. “Women have more difficulty in having full careers. They are the most exposed to chopped careers” insists the rebellious MP Clémentine Autain, present in the demonstration alongside other parliamentarians.
For Siva Thiyaga, a housekeeper laid off in October, finding a job has become urgent. Vital mission, but not so simple. “I’m 59. Who’s going to hire me? Who wants me now?” Member of an association for the defense of equality between women and men – she also wears badges, signs and flags – this mother is worried about her pension. “Contribute, contribute… But that’s all I want to contribute. No matter where, no matter the hours, I need to work fast!” Especially since she has already been inactive several times to take care of her children alone. “Many of us have had to put work aside at one time or another. And it’s rarely by choice.” Sunday, Elisabeth Borne had denounced, on France Info, the “inaccuracies” on the situation of women in the bill, and affirmed that the reform “protects women, in particular those who have interrupted careers”. A message far from having allayed the fears of the demonstrators.