An unprecedented gesture: if a new day of demonstrations against the pension reform is organized this Thursday, all the unions -including the CFDT, traditionally more moderate- have already called for “putting the country at risk”. Sentence of March 7, date of the beginning of the examination of the bill in the Senate. What hope of making the government concede, which up to now maintains well on lowering the starting age to 64 years, despite the mobilization in the streets.
Among the options being considered: installing long-term mobilizations on the streets or even going towards “renewable strikes” at the RATP, the SNCF or even at the airports, as explained by Philippe Martínez, number 1 of the CGT, at the end of last week.
public support
This tightening of his tone has to do with a change of foot. Since the beginning of the movement against the reform led by Elisabeth Borne, the unions have always been careful to keep the consent of the French on their side: 67% still oppose the current reform and as many approve of the mobilization, according to the latest Elabe poll for BFMTV published on Wednesday, a high level compared to other social movements in recent years.
Laurent Berger, number 1 of the CFDT, had not stopped stressing in recent days the absence of a call for a transport strike last Saturday, the first day of vacation in zone B – a way of maintaining public support.
But for Jean-Marie Pernot, a specialist in the history of trade unionism, the centrals no longer have a choice and must change their tactics.
“Therefore, it is necessary to give guarantees to the forces on the ground and show that we are prepared to carry out much tougher attacks while we supervise them,” the political scientist further advances.
Avoid feeling overwhelmed
The orientation seems to be acclaimed by the French. Nearly 6 in 10 French people say they are in favor of a “stagnant France” on March 7, according to an Elabe poll for BFMTV.
It must be said that despite the magnitude of the demonstrations – the unions gathered several hundred thousand people in the streets on four occasions – the majority remain inflexible for the moment. “Nothing is going to change,” said a renaissance deputy on the front line about the reform, imperturbable, after the mobilization last Saturday. Seeing in the demonstrations “the simple translation of the unpopularity of a reform that (the majority) assumes.”
Faced with this situation, the unions do not want to be overwhelmed by protesters who would see that demonstrations of force in the streets would not be enough. In the ranks of the social partners, the recent strike of the SNCF controllers, organized in particular through a collective organized on Facebook, very far from the power stations, has something that causes them to break out in cold sweat.
In the ranks of the union, concern begins to emerge in the media of the movement. Laurent Berger, the organization’s secretary general, pointed out on BFMTV last week the “lack of democratic perspective of a country that does not respond to 1.5 million people”, describing the attitude of power as “lack of democracy”.
With the line of sight, the movement of the yellow vests. Although they brought many fewer French onto the streets, the demonstrations organized every weekend at the end of 2018 had led the government to react. And release between 12 and 15 billion euros after several large mobilizations, but marked by excesses such as the destruction inside the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
executive hesitation
In the field of the presidential majority we oscillate between the dramatization and the speeches in a more offensive tone. Olivier Dussopt, Minister of Labor, thus assured that he “listened”, “the door is always open for the unions” during the debates in the chamber.
The president of the Economic Affairs Commission of the National Assembly wonders if “the CFDT” is “ready to evolve.” At the moment, it is rather the executive and the majority that are blamed by the French: 73% believe that the government has not been clear and transparent about the content of the reform, according to our Elabe survey. And 55% to impute to the executive the responsibility of the current bad climate in the National Assembly.
Source: BFM TV
