For the first time in twelve years, the eight main unions (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, Unsa, Solidaires and FSU) show their unity to oppose the pension reform presented last Tuesday by the Government. With a first joint call for mobilization on Thursday, January 19.
This date must give “the beginning of a powerful mobilization on long-term pensions”, declared the eight organizations. A message well received by the union representatives of certain sectors that already program other days of strikes in addition to protest actions.
This Thursday, the CGT unions in the oil sector called several days of strike on January 19 and 26 as well as February 6 with “if necessary, the closure of the refineries.” The call will result in “flow slowdowns” and “shipment stoppages,” said Eric Sellini, national union coordinator for TotalEnergies.
On February 6, “workers will be offered” a “renewable strike with, where appropriate, the closure of the refining facilities,” says the CGT. The movement must begin with a first 24-hour strike on January 19, the day of the national inter-professional mobilization. For January 26, the CGT calls for a 48-hour strike, then 72 hours on February 6.
• Energy
Discontent is also growing on the side of CGT Mines-Énergie, which represents EDF employees in particular. In addition to being affected by the postponement of the age of majority to 64 years, this sector will see its special regime for newcomers disappear with the reform.
Inadmissible for Sébastien Menesplier, general secretary of the CGT National Federation of Mines and Energy: “All the decided actions will be implemented. Everything will be possible. (…) The renewable strike will be carried out, as well as the actions in our work tools”, he told Franceinfo, adding that “what is needed is for the strike to be massive and extensive.” “The strike begins on the 19th and will end when the reform has been withdrawn,” also warned the union representative who called on workers in the energy sector to “act on (their) work tool” but without penalizing users.
• Transportation
Mobilization could also be very popular in transportation. The unions of large companies such as the SNCF or the RATP expressed this Wednesday their determination to oppose the pension reform and called “a resounding strike” on Thursday, January 19. At the SNCF, the message of the inter-union made up of the CGT, Unsa, SUD and the CFDT is clear: “total opposition to lowering the legal retirement age to 64 years accompanied by an increase in the contribution period”.
The four organizations “are ready to launch the necessary battle” and call in a press release “a resounding strike” on the railways on January 19. “Division and inaction have no place”, insisted the four railway federations that ask the SNCF management not to “take over from this counter-reform”. In the RATP, where 40,000 employees are subject to a special pension plan that the government intends to reform, the CGT, FO, Unsa and CFE-CGC unions have made it known that they were “prepared” to oppose it.
Other federations are also calling for mobilization. FO-Transport and Logistics, which brings together both truckers and ambulance, coach and freighter drivers, wants to go “as far as possible in this fight.” The federation wants to launch an “unlimited” movement from January 19 to prepare “the massive and harsh response.”
• Public function
The public sector should also be there. In a rare joint press release, the eight trade union organizations representing the civil service -in the order CGT, FO, CFDT, Unsa, FSU, Solidaires, CFE-CGC and FA-FP- “demanded the Government to withdraw its project of postponement of the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 and increase the contribution period” which they consider “unfair and unnecessary”.
The inter-union called on “all public officials to mobilize” against this project and “to enroll en masse in the first day of strikes and inter-professional demonstrations on January 19.” The public service unions, united by wage demands as well as their common opposition to the pension reform, are also trying to agree on a date for an inter-union meeting that could herald future mobilizations.
Source: BFM TV
