Strike of March 28: school, transport… Major disturbances?

STRIKE OF MARCH 28. The inter-union calls for a tenth day of mobilization against the pension reform on Tuesday March 28. Education, transport… The sectors hitherto very mobilized could join the strike movement.

If Emmanuel Macron said, in his interview with TF1 and France 2 on Wednesday March 22, that he hoped that the pension reform would come into force “by the end of the year” after its adoption via article 49.3, the eight main French unions (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, CFTC, Unsa, Solidaires, FSU), united in inter-union, do not intend to put an end to the protest movement of the bill. Thursday March 23, for the ninth day of action against the pension reform, 3.5 million people demonstrated in the streets of France according to the CGT, equaling the figures of the record mobilization of March 7, and 1.089 million after the Ministry of the Interior, against 1.28 million on March 7.

On the strength of this significant mobilization despite the adoption of the pension reform in Parliament, the inter-union has already called for “local union rallies this weekend and a new big day of strikes and demonstrations on Tuesday March 28 all over the country”, in a communicated published Thursday evening. Transport, education, refineries, garbage collectors… Many sectors were on strike during the last day of mobilization on Thursday, or are still in renewable movements. There should therefore still be major disruptions in certain sectors on Tuesday, March 28. Find below what we know, for the moment, of the disruptions planned in the different sectors for this tenth day of mobilization against the pension reform.

Which sectors could be affected by strikes on Tuesday March 28?

The inter-union having announced this Thursday evening the holding of a new day of demonstrations and strikes against the pension reform on Tuesday March 28, it is, for the moment, difficult to establish precisely the disruptions expected in the various sectors until ‘here very involved in the protest movement against the bill. But the call of the inter-union should probably give rise to new walkouts for the day of March 28, especially in the public transport sector. Thus, the renewable strike initiated on March 7 by the SNCF unions is still at work, and could still be next Tuesday. For its part, the RATP has not yet commented on possible disruptions on March 28. In the aviation sector, a strike by air traffic controllers continues and will lead to flight cancellations at several French airports until Monday, as reported BFM TVbut the movement could continue on Tuesday due to the appeal of the inter-union.

In the education sector, few announcements have been made for the moment regarding the day of March 28. On Twitter, the CGT-Educ’action union nevertheless called for “a maximum of actions everywhere this weekend and for an upcoming interprofessional mobilization on Tuesday March 28” in order to “strike the iron while it is hot”. In a press release also published on Twitter this Friday, March 24, the high school inter-union, made up of the unions FIDL, the Voix lycéenne and the Mouvement national lycéen, also called for “renewable blockades from Monday March 27, and this, until the end of the week “. The high school students’ unions also claim that “1,500 establishments” have been blocked since the start of the protest movement against the pension reform.

One of the strike movements with the most visible consequences, that of the garbage collectors, is renewed for the moment until Monday, March 27. The CGT’s “waste treatment” sector, which includes garbage collectors, waste incineration plants and even sanitation, has indeed announced a continuation of walkouts until this date. Here again, the call of the inter-union for a new day of action on March 28 could encourage the sector to mobilize longer. Finally, the strike movement continues in the oil sector, with blockades in refineries and fuel depots in France, which lead to situations of lack of fuel. “15% of service stations are out of one or more products,” indicated the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, during an interview on RMC this Friday. “Three regions are more in difficulty: Brittany, Pays de la Loire and PACA. The periphery of Occitania close to the sea, a little too”, she specified. If the State has made requisitions in certain places, in particular at the Fos-sur-Mer oil depot (Bouches-du-Rhône) and at the Gonfreville-l’Orcher refinery (Seine-Maritime), the walkouts continue in other places, and could still be effective next Tuesday.