“If we don’t block anything, we won’t be heard. A total of 107,000 people demonstrated Tuesday in France, including 13,000 in Paris, at the call of the unions for a rise in wages and against the requisitions of strikers in the refineries, indicated the Ministry of the Interior. The CGT has counted nearly 300,000, including more than 70,000 in the main procession in Paris.
There were 15 arrests during the rallies, including 11 in Paris, the ministry added. Nine members of the security forces were “slightly injured”, including eight in the capital, but “no demonstrator” was injured. The previous day of interprofessional mobilization, on September 29, brought together 118,500 people, including 13,500 in Paris according to the police (250,000 and 40,000 according to the organizers).
“We don’t block the country for fun”
“Wage increases in the face of inflation”: from Dunkirk to Montpellier, the demand was almost unanimous in the parades on Tuesday. “We are not blocking the country for fun, the government is against the workers. I am there in support for the right to strike, it is important because today it is called into question, this fundamental human right is called into question, it is not normal ”, confides to AFP a speech therapist lyonnaise.
Louis, SNCF traffic agent and Sud-Rail union member, manifests “in solidarity” with the refiners. “At the SNCF, we have already suffered threats of requisitions, we know what it is,” he told the press agency. The only way to support them is not to leave them isolated and that we all go on strike. »
Some health professionals are also joining the fight. This is the case of Marie-Laure, a nurse in a hospital in Essonne. “I am here as a health professional. Despite the Ségur, the revaluation of 183 euros in our salary is not enough. We ask for a revaluation of 300 euros. We held the Covid for two years. We were heroes but nothing was done for the hospital. »
In addition to the subject of wages and the requisitions of strikers, other ingredients are fueling social anger: the prospect of a 49.3 to have the budget adopted in the Assembly, the forthcoming tightening of the rules for unemployment compensation or even the pension reform expected by the end of the year.