In mid-February, the eight main French unions said they were ready to “put France on hold in all sectors on March 7” if the government and Parliament remained “deaf” to the mobilization against the pension reform. Four days before the fateful date, here is what the different sectors are planning.
Transports
While the RATP inter-union was the first to call for a renewable strike from March 7, all the SNCF unions followed suit, voting in turn for a renewable mobilization.
Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), the authority responsible for organizing transport in the Ile-de-France region, for its part announced this Friday in a press release “major disruptions” in public transport, calling “all Ile-de-France residents who can telecommute”.
In the air, the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) asked companies to give up part of their flights on Tuesday March 7 and Wednesday March 8, in anticipation of the air traffic controllers’ strike. Flight schedules will be reduced by 20% at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle and by 30% at Paris-Orly, Beauvais, Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Nantes, Marseille, Montpellier, Nice and Toulouse.
Education
The seven main teachers’ unions called on February 14 for strikes to allow “total closure of schools, colleges, high schools and services” on March 7. The inter-union also called on staff “to mobilize on March 8, the international day of struggle for women’s rights, to denounce the major social injustice of this pension reform against women”.
Energy
The renewable strike has already started this Friday afternoon in the nuclear power plants, “taking into account the debate which opens in the Senate” on article 1 concerning the abolition of special pension schemes, announced the CGT. EDF agents therefore lowered electricity production and the EDF site actually listed load reductions in several power stations.
On the side of the refineries, “the renewable strike will be effective in all” of the French sites, “on all the imports”, estimated Emmanuel Lépine, CGT secretary of the federation of chemistry, Thursday during a general assembly .
The secretary general of the CGT of electricians and gas, Sébastien Ménesplier for his part promised “a dark week in energy”, with targeted cuts, blockages, occupations, and always “Robin Hood operations” for the population. .
Garbage men
On February 14, the CGT launched a call for a renewable strike by garbage collectors and “the entire waste sector” from March 7. It is for the moment the only union to launch this call but the CGT is in the majority, especially in Paris, whether among municipal and private garbage collectors. Its representatives have announced their intention to approach the other trade union federations in the sector to broaden the appeal.
Delivery
Uncertainty reigned as to their participation, the CGT Transports called this Friday the deliverers of the platforms to join the movement. The second delivery workers’ union called on them to “organize themselves to decide on their demands in order to bring them to fruition, and to mobilize from March 7, by stopping work and demonstrating”.
It is however difficult to know if the call will be followed up, in a sector where the professional elections of May 2022 had met with a very mixed success with the 120,000 workers called to express themselves, with only 1.83% of participation among delivery people and 3.91% among VTC.
Metallurgy
In a statement of February 21, the CGT union in the sector, which represents some 1.5 million employees in France, called for a renewable strike, asking for “a general mobilization from March 7 and 8 next”. “Together, on March 7, let’s shut down metallurgy companies! “, called, in a joint press release, the CGT unions of Thalès, Valéo, Stellantis, ArcelorMittal, Forvia, Airbus, Safran and Renault.
The movement should continue on March 8 in most sectors, the inter-union having called for a renewable strike.