STRIKES 2023. Strikes are announced in many sectors in January 2023, from transport to health. Facebook pages have also called for the relaunch of the “Yellow Vests” movement for Saturday, January 7.
[Mis à jour le 2 janvier 2023 à 18h32] After the Christmas holidays disrupted by the strike by SNCF controllers, new social movements could animate the month of January 2023. Some have even already started in the health sector. Thus, the liberal doctors are called to a new strike from this Monday, January 2, 2023 and until Sunday, January 8 inclusive. This is the second consecutive week of this strike launched by the collective “Doctors for tomorrow”. The main demand of the collective is the doubling of the basic consultation fee, which corresponds to an increase of 25 to 50 euros. The aim is to attract new liberal doctors to city medicine which suffers from a lack of staff.
Also in the field of health, biology laboratories no longer report, since Monday, the results of Covid tests which allow the government to follow the evolution of the epidemic. Patients can, however, continue to be tested in the laboratories. Their unions disagree with the amount of savings requested of them over the period 2024-2026. The health sector is not the only one affected by social movements. Indeed, several unions in the RATP called for “continuing and hardening the strike movement from January 2023”, in a press release published on December 14, 2022. They are demanding better working conditions and an increase in their salaries. On the side of the SNCF, no strike action has yet been announced in the coming weeks.
Strikes could also hit the public service, energy, trade or even retail sectors in January. Very often, regardless of the sector, the demands of employees overlap: salary increase, rejection of the pension reform, recruitment and working conditions… It is not by coincidence that the RATP strike could be held “around January 10”, according to a union source contacted by France 3 Regions. This is indeed the date chosen by the government to present its highly contested pension reform. In addition, several Facebook pages have called for the relaunch of the “Yellow Vests” movement on Saturday January 7. It remains to be seen whether this call will be heard.
When will the strikes take place in January 2023?
While the strikes are preparing for the return to school in January, one date stands out: that of January 10, 2023. This is, for example, the day around which the RATP unions could go on strike, according to a union source contacted by France 3 Regions. It is also on January 10 that Emmanuel Macron must present the pension reform. Coincidence? Certainly not. The reform project is a source of conflict as soon as it is put on the table. Nevertheless, the whole month of January could be punctuated by strike movements. In the civil service and the energy sector, strike notices run for the period from from January 1 to 31, while on the side of National Education, a call for a strike was launched for the day of the January 17.
Which sectors will be on strike in January?
Already several sectors, through different unions, have said they are ready to demonstrate and go on strike to make their demands heard and defend their interests. In the health sector, strikes have already started.
- The transport : the RATP has called for a new strike in January 2023 to “harden the movement” that has been underway for several weeks. “Our trade unions note that our demands (statutory upgrading, upgrading of the workforce, etc.) have not been heard”, wrote the CGT, FO, Unsa and La Base for the RER in an inter-union press release published. on December 14, deeming the proposals made by management during the mandatory annual negotiations at the end of 2022 unsatisfactory. According to a union source contacted by France 3 Regions, the RATP strike could be held “around January 10”. On the SNCF side, no strike movement has been announced in the coming weeks, but the situation could change in the coming days.
- The Public service : it is indeed the civil servants of the three sides (State, territorial and hospital civil servants) who are called upon to mobilize during the month of January. And Céline Verzeletti, the secretary general of the CGT-Public Service, wants to believe in “massive mobilizations”. In the health sector, caregivers and nurses had already mobilized during previous strike days in October and November, and could start again. Some strikes have already started in the health sector. Thus, since this Monday January 2, 2023, the liberal doctors are called to strike, and this until Sunday January 8 inclusive, for a second week of consecutive strike. A strike launched by the collective “Doctors for tomorrow”. The biology laboratories also no longer report, since Monday, the results of the Covid tests allowing the government to follow the evolution of the epidemic. National Education is also part of the public sector, and the teachers’ unions called for a strike on January 17, to defend the rise in wages and the pro high schools targeted by a decried reform.
- L’energy : several strikes have disrupted companies in this sector with mobilizations in nuclear power plants, refineries and on various EDF and GRDF sites in 2022. The protest impulses persist and the national secretary of the CFE-Unsa Energies union for EDF, Amélie Henri, informed AFP that a “strike notice from December 19 until January 31” has been filed. Similarly, Fabrice Coudour, the federal secretary of the FNME-CGT, assured that in the face of the pension reform, the CGT of energy will mobilize.
- the trade : social movements have found an echo in small businesses and in large retailers since November, and in January, new strikes could affect the brands Conforama, Castorama, Cultura, Galeries Lafayette but also Go Sport (in receivership), Pimkie and C&A according to Audrey Ricci, assistant secretary of the federal trade section of the FEC-FO. On the retail side, Aldi employees could join the movement.
Why are strikes announced in January 2023?
Unsurprisingly, the motivations that push the unions to call a strike are linked to the issue of wages and the very divisive pension reform. Claims on a salary increase are not new and have been dragging on for several months, if not more. Inflation, which has considerably reduced the purchasing power of the French people, and the energy crisis, which has caused the prices of gas, electricity and above all petrol to rise in turn, have been new reasons for unions to campaign for higher wages. But rare are the demands that have found satisfactory answers from the bosses, and the series of compulsory annual negotiations organized in several sectors (energy, transport, etc.) have only crystallized and sometimes exacerbated the conflicts. All the January strikers therefore intend to campaign for a wage increase commensurate with their demands.
The other major issue behind the countless strike calls in January 2023 is pension reform. The presentation of the government project, which has tensed the unions since the previous five-year term of Emmanuel Macron, has been postponed to January 10, 2023, and must announce the start of the process for its implementation. Problem: all the unions are ganging up against this reform, which provides for the postponement of the retirement age to 65 or the abolition of special schemes enjoyed by workers in certain sectors preparing for a strike. The mobilizations therefore aim to block the reform, at all costs. Sector by sector, other demands are also made, like teachers who want to oppose the reform of the professional path, and against which they have already campaigned on November 17. But this is only one example, and these claims remain in the minority.