“More wages! Less precarious! “: less than a month before the presidential election, processions set off on Thursday to demand an increase in salaries and pensions, and to rebound on the government’s promise to raise the remuneration of civil servants.
The rallies were taking place as Emmanuel Macron confirmed on Thursday his desire to gradually raise the legal retirement age to 65 in ten years, if he were re-elected and intends to toughen the conditions for access to the RSA. It aims for “full employment” in 5 years.
In Paris, the procession – with distended ranks – left at the beginning of the afternoon from the Place de la République, direction Chaussée d’Antin – La Fayette, behind a banner: “Let us demand an increase in wages, pensions and social minima.
Few disruptions were observed in transport, except in the east of France where only one out of two TGVs runs to Strasbourg, Reims and Metz/Nancy. The RATP reserves its forces for a one-day strike on March 25. At the national level, at the end of the morning, the Ministry of Education reported an average rate of 2.27% of strikers in the first and second degree.
“Emergency”
“We must increase salaries urgently”, pleaded the number one of the CGT Philippe Martinez, worrying about the “small music in the face of the dramatic events and the war in Ukraine” on the difficulties experienced by companies. He noted that “2021 was a record year for big business profits, dividends paid to shareholders”, despite the Covid-19 crisis.
As for the civil servants, he pleaded for the catch-up “to be at the level of the losses accumulated for 12 years”, estimating that the agents have lost “at least 10%”. Same “emergency” pointed out by the representatives of the other unions, Guillaume Trichard, deputy secretary general of Unsa evoking an “explosive” situation.
Candidates Philippe Poutou (NPA) and Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI) have announced their presence. “We must increase wages and ensure that after a lifetime of work we can benefit from a retirement allowing us to live with dignity,” declared the PCF candidate, Fabien Roussel.
At the center of the claims, purchasing power while inflation, measured by INSEE at 3.6% over one year in February, could accelerate further due to the Ukrainian conflict. The Smic could therefore experience a new automatic revaluation “of at least 2%” in the coming months, according to the institute.
Simon Duteil, co-delegate of Solidaires, nevertheless admitted that the mobilization risked being on a smaller scale than the previous day of action in January, which “does not mean that this question of wages does not exist”. The previous day of interprofessional mobilization, on January 27, had brought together 89,000 demonstrators in France according to the authorities, more than 150,000 according to the organizers. This time, the mobilization could suffer from the absence of the Force Ouvrière confederation, which was present in January.
“Maintaining the social agenda”, despite the war in Ukraine
And the war in Ukraine weighs on people’s minds and “flattens the debate”, as noted by Simon Duteil, co-delegate of Solidaires. But “it is our responsibility to keep the social agenda up to date”, affirms for his part the secretary general of Unsa, Laurent Escure. Absent during the previous demonstrations in January and October, the union of autonomous unions joined the intersyndicale with a slogan that it hopes will mobilize: “Salary emergencies! Do 17 (March)”.
Far from demobilizing the employees, the promise of an increase in the index point of the civil servants, Monday, must encourage the demonstrators to “be even more numerous”, according to Céline Verzeletti (CGT). While the government has not yet specified the amount of the increase and has returned the measure to a law passed this summer, seven unions have called for an application “as soon as possible”. They demand a minimum increase of around 4%.
More than 150 gatherings
This Thursday, “more than 150 assembly points” were planned according to the CGT, at the call of an inter-union CGT, FSU, Solidaires, Unsa and several high school organizations.
A Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme), the procession brought together around 800 people, according to the CGT, in a light rain behind a banner “for the increase in wages, allowances, pensions and social minima”. With galloping inflation, “you take the increases in gasoline, energy, it’s hellish”, commented Emmanuel Serrer, 54-year-old Enedis agent, demanding “better recognition through salaries”.
Reindeer (Ille-et-Vilaine), they were between 550 (police) and 1,000 people (unions) behind a banner: “Social justice, not alms”. “The primary concern of employees is this increase in wages”, underlined Dominique Besson Milord, general secretary of the UD CGT of Ille-et-Vilaine, while recognizing “a wear and tear of mobilizations which do not succeed, with employees who are worn out.
In Besançon (Doubs), about 300 people (police and organizers) demonstrated in the city center. One could read on a CGT sign “More wages! Less precarious”. The militants of this union and those of the education unions constituted the major part of the procession.
To Dijon (Côte-d’Or), they were only a hundred to respond to the call of the unions. The war in Ukraine “crushes a lot of things. It’s difficult”, admitted Fabian Clément (FSU).