They are calling for pensions to be upgraded, for public services to be strengthened and “humanised”, particularly in rural areas. An inter-union of retired people, including the CGT, FO or the SNES-FSU, called Monday for a day of national mobilization on Thursday.
Retirees will be pounding the pavement in around twenty large cities including Paris, Marseille and Lyon. The Parisian procession will leave at 2 p.m. from Place de la Bastille to head for Place de la République.
Inflation and the time for the balance sheet of Emmanuel Macron’s five-year term motivated the inter-union to take to the streets, three months after the last day of national action for retirees.
“We don’t want a bonus, but a real increase in retirement pensions,” said Marc Bastide, secretary general of the UCR-CGT, at a press conference.
A “catch-up” of the pension freeze
Faced with the rise in the cost of living, the inter-union called for the “reindexing of pensions on the evolution of wages” and a “catch-up” of the freezing of pensions. The inter-union regretted the “anti-retirement” policies carried out, according to it, by the outgoing government. “Retirees are only adjustment variables in controlling the budget,” said Marc Bastide.
The cost of health is singled out by pensioners’ unions. Among their grievances is the “enormous” increase in the price of complementary health insurance, which leads to the “pauperization of retirees” according to Marylène Cahouet, of the national office of the SNES-FSU.
Thus, the secretary general of the UCR-CGT has called for the “support of autonomy by Social Security, and the creation of a social service for autonomy. The trade unions and collectives of retirees are also asking the State to strengthen the presence of public services and reinvest in rural areas, to prevent retirees from finding themselves “distraught” by the digitization of procedures.