After a record mobilization on Tuesday March 7, the inter-union wants to maintain the pressure with a new day of strike this Saturday, the seventh since the start of the mobilization on January 19, 2023. The organizers are counting on a new show of force from the streets , as a crucial week begins: the one in which the government hopes to see the reform definitively adopted.
The last day of demonstration, which brought together between 1.28 (Ministry of the Interior) and 3.5 million French people (according to the organizers), was not enough to push back the vote on the bill, nor even to be received by Emmanuel Macron as demanded by the unions. After an accelerated voting procedure in the Senate, a joint committee must now meet in the coming days. A final vote will then take place in both chambers by Sunday March 26 at midnight. The threat of yet another 49.3 still looms, if the government fails to find a majority of deputies to approve the text.
A million people expected by the police in the streets
According to the police, the participation this Saturday could reach between 800,000 and one million people, spread over 230 demonstration points in France. Around 70,000 to 100,000 people are expected in Paris, where the movement will start again at 2:00 p.m. from Place de la République, towards Place de la Nation. In most major cities, processions will leave between 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., such as in Montpellier, Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nantes or Bordeaux. In Toulouse, Nice or Strasbourg, the demonstrators pounded the pavement from 10:30 a.m. this morning.
This Saturday will be the second day of mobilization during the weekend, in order to allow employees to participate without having to ask for a day of strike. On February 11, 963,000 people had taken to the streets according to the Ministry of the Interior, and more than 2.5 million according to the CGT. The inter-union is already calling for an eighth round on Wednesday March 15.
Transport still disrupted at the national level, less in Paris
The transport sector remains one of the most mobilized. After an already chaotic week for users, weekend traffic forecasts “remain severely disrupted”, according to SNCF, with half of the TGV Inoui and Ouigo removed, as well as 60% of the TER. It also calls on its users to “cancel or postpone their trips this weekend”. High-speed traffic will be particularly reduced on the North and Atlantic routes with 60% of trains eliminated, while on the East, South-East and Ouigo routes, there will be one train out of two.
At the RATP, the blockages calm down on the fifth day of a renewable strike. Traffic will be “normal with the exception of a few lines” of metros in Paris: two out of three trains are planned on line 11 in the afternoon, and three out of four trains on line 6, also in the afternoon. As on previous days, the bus and tram networks will operate normally. RER A and B will remain “disturbed”, according to the Régie. There will only be one out of two trains on RER A and two out of three on RER B (with interruption of the interconnection at Gare du Nord) today.
Since Tuesday, the first day of the strike rather well followed, the situation has improved in Parisian transport, revealing a fairly weak mobilization among RATP agents, unlike the 2019 strike against the previous pension reform project.
On the air transport side, the controllers’ strike prompted the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) to ask airlines to cancel 20% of their flights scheduled for this Saturday and Sunday at several airports, in particular “at the start and arrival from the airports of Paris-Orly, Marseille, Toulouse, Nantes and Bordeaux”.
Lockdowns continue in energy and fuel
Several sectors have maintained or intensified renewable strikes since March 7. The situation is variable in refineries. That of Esso-ExxonMobil in Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône) has again been blocked since Friday afternoon, like that of TotalEnergies in Donges, near Saint-Nazaire. On Friday, the neighboring TotalEnergies refinery at La Mède also remained blocked, while that of Petroineos should also be blocked until Monday morning, according to the CGT.
On the electricity production side, one of the main weapons of the strikers, the CGT Energie mentioned new voluntary power cuts and gas strikes in all LNG terminals and gas storage today. Since March 7, the CGT Mines-Energie has claimed production cuts throughout France. On March 7 alone, the strikers got their hands on 21,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity production at EDF, according to the union, including 13,000 from thermal and nuclear power plants (the equivalent of a dozen power plants ), and 8,000 of hydroelectric power in the dams. Lower production figures that would have lasted more moderately during the week.
Faced with the silence of the government, the unions warn against a hardening always possible, in this sector which represents an important lever of pressure. “There are voices that have been rising for several days to say: since the government remains deaf, we must do harder”, warned Friday Fabrice Coudour, secretary general of the CGT Energie.