A postponement of the legal age to 65 or an increase to 64 accompanied by an acceleration of the Touraine reform? It does not matter for the unions that – it is quite rare to denounce it – unanimously challenge the philosophy of the executive reform of pensions.
While the government must present its project on January 10, the representative organizations of the workers are already on the starting grid to oppose this text on the street. And they intend to show a united front until the end to give weight to their future call for mobilization:
“A very hard, very deep social conflict”
All the unions already plan to meet right after the presentation of the reform, on January 10: “There will be announcements. In the process we meet and advise (…). We will announce joint mobilizations if it remains as is,” said the head of the CFDT.
For his part, the general secretary of the CGT, Philippe Martínez, denounced this Wednesday a “dogmatic” pension reform decided “without taking into account the opinion of the unions, unanimous opinion” and predicted “important mobilizations starting this month from January”. At the end of his meeting with Elisabeth Borne, the leader of the Montreuil central said that he informed the Prime Minister “with a bit of humor (…) that she had achieved a feat: 12 years had passed since the entire union organizations in this country had not united against reform.
If the president of the CFTC, Cyril Chabanier, for his part, mentioned “interesting” proposals from the government, in particular on the minimum pension, he regrets that the executive “is stuck” on the issue of lowering the age, which he believes could lead to a “hot” month of January. The same story in Unsa whose general secretary, Laurent Escure, expects “a very tough, very deep social conflict.”
“We will meet to say where and when. But there will be a mobilization and a strong mobilization. In addition to all the unions, the majority of the French are against a lowering of the retirement age. If we govern against their country, against the citizens and against the unions… It will not work”, added Frédéric Souillot, general secretary of Force Ouvrière. The mobilization “is in the process of installation, but it is not yet stagnant”, also affirms Dominique Corona, assistant general secretary of Unsa in charge of the pensions.
Activists ready to mobilize
The unions did not wait for the new year to prepare their response. They have been crossing France for weeks to mobilize their troops. In less than three months, FO made more than 180 trips to the regions. Meanwhile, Dominique Corona made a “tour of France on pensions” in December to discuss with activists and citizens, and the observation is clear: “I went to some cities, some regions. They are all on the same line: it is not” for the reform.
Some organizations have also posted videos on their website preparing for the move, while others have taken out stock of jackets emblazoned with their logo.
Confidence seems to be in order: even before the end-of-year celebrations, when the organizations had met inter-union to discuss the upcoming mobilizations, their representatives had already ensured that the strike funds were sufficiently full to blockade the country for several days. and that the militants had reassembled to blockade. So much so that the issue, at the time, was not so much whether they would mobilize, but convincing them not to start too early, at the risk of spoiling the end-of-year celebrations and seeing public opinion turn against them.
Source: BFM TV
