From Marseille to Rennes, via Paris: nearly 120 rallies and demonstrations “for employment and industry” are planned this Thursday, November 12 in France at the call of the CGT, joined by Solidaires and the FSU, in response to a wave of social plans. Thursday “will be a day of convergence with the strike of railway workers against the dismantling of rail freight and that of civil servants who are asking for a budget that meets needs” and demanding “a government which finally responds to the social emergency!”, declared to AFP Sophie Binet, the leader of the CGT, the second largest French trade union centre.
On the rail side, if “normal traffic” is planned for all TGVs, slight disruptions have been announced for regional trains “with a national average of eight trains out of ten”. In Ile-de-France, the most disrupted lines are, as is often the case during railway strikes, the RER D (one train in three on average) and the Transilien line R (one train in five).
Multiplication of social plans
Announcements of social plans follow one another while France seeks a new Prime Minister, after the censorship and resignation of Michel Barnier’s government. Whether in large companies (Auchan, Michelin, Vencorex, PPG, etc.), with subcontractors or small structures, in many sectors (metallurgy, commerce, public and associative sectors, banks and insurance, chemicals, etc.) and almost everywhere on French territory, social plans are multiplying. “It’s been six months since the CGT warned about layoff plans […]. Our warnings are not being heard,” Sophie Binet lamented Thursday on RTL, calling for “emergency measures” including a moratorium on layoffs.
On November 27, the CGT counted 286 social plans. It now lists 300, with up to 300,000 jobs threatened or eliminated, using data from the Altares firm. In this context, the Montreuil power plant calls for “actions across the entire territory on Thursday, to defend employment and industry”. Thus, mobilizations (at workplaces, gatherings or demonstrations) are planned in nearly 80 departments, indicates the CGT. Rarely, the union even encouraged, at the end of November, “employees to go on strike and occupy their factories to prevent layoffs”.
A “red” December?
While awaiting the appointment of a new Prime Minister, the CGT is thus maintaining the pressure, in the form of a social alert to the future government. “The month of December promises to be red and it’s not Santa’s red,” promised Sophie Binet. But will the call be heard by employees? “It’s complicated to mobilize when you know that you don’t have people to talk to,” says a union source, speaking on condition of anonymity, fearing low mobilization.
In detail, the first gathering was held at 6:00 a.m. in front of Aurillac station (Cantal), before a demonstration in Toulouse departing from Thales Alenia Space (10:00 a.m.), a gathering at Saint-Charles station in Marseille at the same time or in front of the Nantes prefecture (10:30 a.m.). While several companies are threatened (Vencorex and Valéo), in Isère, a rally has been held in front of the Grenoble prefecture since 11:00 a.m. Other actions will be carried out such as at the Fonderies de Bretagne in Lorient (Morbihan), where Sophie Binet will be present.
The inter-union did not take a position, divided on the strategies to adopt, but Solidaires and the FSU civil service joined the movement. “It is no longer possible to have the same policy towards both public sector agents and employees who are subject to these layoffs,” notes Murielle Guilbert, co-general delegate at Solidaires. Force Ouvrière provided its support to “all the initiatives and mobilizations already decided” by its troops locally. In Paris, three public service union organizations (CGT, FSU and Solidaires) have decided on a new day of mobilization on Thursday, with a demonstration at 2:00 p.m. starting from Place de la Bastille.
At the SNCF, only the CGT-Cheminots and SUD-Rail unions maintained their strike call to demand a moratorium on the dismantling of Fret SNCF and to protest against the terms of opening regional lines (TER) to competition. In the electricity and gas sector, very mobilized in past years, the strike is renewed at GRT Gaz, whose employees had already strongly mobilized a week earlier.