2.8 million demonstrators according to the CGT, 1,272 million according to the police… Whatever the figure used, the call for mobilization against the pension reform brought together more people on the streets this Tuesday than during the first day of mobilization that took place on January 19, when the organizers counted more than 2 million people, against 1.12 million from the Ministry of the Interior.
In several public and private sectors, however, the strikers were less numerous on Tuesday than twelve days ago.
• Education
Teacher unions have counted at least 50% of the strikers among teachers, from kindergarten to high school. For its part, the ministry announced a rate of teachers on strike of 25.92%, figures well below the mobilization of January 19 (38.5%). In Paris, but not only, the schools remained closed.
On the student side, the rallies took place on Tuesday morning, such as on the Saint-Charles site of the University of Aix-Marseille. Sciences Po Paris was occupied overnight by about fifty students who emptied the premises in the morning.
• Transportation
At the airports, it was mainly the air traffic controllers’ strike that caused disruptions and delays. The cancellation of one in five flights was requested from Paris-Orly by the General Directorate of Civil Aviation to adapt the available personnel and the expected traffic. In Nice, 18 rotations out of 90 were cancelled.
In railways, more than a third of railway workers (36.5%) went on strike according to a union source, less than on January 19 (46.3%). But 75% of the SNCF trains planned out of Ile-de-France have been cancelled, that is, 423 TGV out of 650 (65%) and 6706 TER out of 8901 (75%). In Ile-de-France, the suburbs have practically no train in ten, on average, on lines C, D, E, J, L, N, P and R which, for the most part between them, only operated at peak hours and/or part of its route.
In the Paris metro, the traffic was very disrupted, and only the automatic lines 1 and 14 were working normally, while the bus and tram service is provided at 80%. The disturbances also affected the Lyon metro, Bordeaux trams, Rennes buses. In Marseille, one of the two metro lines and one of the three tram lines were stopped, the others slowed down. There were no trams running in Nice, as were 25 bus lines. In Corsica, several sea crossings between the island and Marseille have been postponed until Wednesday.
• Civil service and private sector
Among state officials there were 19.4% strikers, according to the Ministry of Public Administration, against 28% twelve days ago. City halls, such as the one in Paris, have kept their doors closed. The communist town halls of Vénissieux (Rhône), Echirolles (Isère) or Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis) closed for half a day. At La Poste, 8.79% of employees were on strike, according to management, compared to 14.64% last time.
• Energy
The mobilization remained strong at the TotalEnergies refineries and fuel depots, which had 75 to 100% strikers, according to the CGT. For its part, the group’s management estimates that the rate of strikers rose to 55%, compared to 65% on January 19. On the electricity side, mobilization decreased slightly. Engie’s management identified 34.3% of the strikers and EDF’s 46.5% at the end of the day, compared to 50% on January 19.
The teams on duty deprived the company of part of its electrical production, with a power loss of up to 5 gigawatts in the second part of the day (the equivalent of five nuclear reactors), according to RTE. Another three-day strike will take place in refineries and the rest of the energy sector on February 6, 7 and 8, at the request of the CGT. In Vienne, the actions of “Robin Hood” to reconnect electricity to cut houses have been claimed by the CGT.
Source: BFM TV
