A successful first day of testing for the unions. The call to demonstrate against the pension reform broadcast by the CGT, the CFDT, FO, the CFE-CGC, the CFTC, the Unsa, Solidaires and FSU was very followed this Thursday. “The mobilization is important, it is undeniable. It makes no sense to deny things. There were people on the street,” Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt admitted on BFMTV.
The authorities’ figures quickly attest to a very important mobilization: 36,000 people in Toulouse, 26,000 in Marseille, 25,000 in Nantes, 19,000 in Clermont-Ferrand, 17,000 in Rennes, 23,000 in Lyon… While the unions expected to see at least one million people pounding the pavement, there were a total of 1.12 million protesters across France, including 80,000 in Paris, according to the Interior Ministry. For its part, the CGT evokes “more than 2 million” people, including 400,000 in Paris.
This level of mobilization is higher than that of December 5, 2019: at the start of the protest against the previous pension reform project, the police had counted 806,000 protesters in France, the CGT 1.5 million. The mobilization this Thursday also brought together more protesters than territorial intelligence expected (between 550,000 and 750,000 in all of France), according to a note consulted by Europe 1.
New day of mobilization on January 31
The inter-union press release read at the end of the mobilization by the general co-delegate of SUD Solidaires hailed “a powerful mobilization”. “On January 19, throughout the territory, more than two million workers and youth mobilized, went on strike and/or demonstrated among the citizens and in the private sector against the pension reform of this government,” added the union representative.
Building on this success, the eight main trade union centrals (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, CFTC, Unsa, Solidaires and FSU) are already planning a second day of action, set for Thursday night, January 31. . They call for then to multiply actions such as strikes as of January 23, the date of presentation of the bill in the Council of Ministers.
keep unity
Through this show of force and after years of tense relations with Emmanuel Macron, the unions, united for the first time in 12 years, intend to regain control and show the Head of State that they will always be counted on in the coming years. weeks. “We left for a tough conflict,” warned Frédéric Souillot, leader of Force Ouvrière.
The challenge for the unions now will be to maintain this united front. Because if they are unanimously opposed to the reform of the government, there are differences on the actions to be carried out to be heard between the “Protestant” organizations and the so-called “reformists”. Not to mention that they do not defend exactly the same project in terms of pensions.
What did not escape Emmanuel Macron, who called to “distinguish between the unions that call to demonstrate in a traditional and republican framework, and those that are taking a deliberate step to blockade the country, even to target parliamentarians”, as he remarked. reported a participant in the Council of Ministers on Wednesday.
Source: BFM TV
