Jean-Marie Tressol retired at 47. More exactly, we put it there. The worker had worked since he was 17 in the coal mines of Cagnac and then Carmaux (Tarn), when, in 1987, the management dismissed the elders. “Thirty years of background”, proudly evokes the 82-year-old man whose work in the family vegetable garden has since weathered his skin. But he does not forget.
The left was then in power, the opening of a new well still nourished the hope of reviving one of the oldest mining companies in France. However, the adventure came to an end. At the beginning of the 1990s, Jean-Marie participated in solidarity with the major demonstrations in Albi, with some memorable CRS charges. In vain.
working city
Thursday, February 16, Jean-Marie and his wife, Simone, will not march through the streets of the Tarn prefecture against the pension reform project. We must spare the weary heart. But among the Tressols, the fact that the city of Jean Jaurès is once again the epicenter of a social movement has awakened excitement. Two days before this fifth day of mobilization, they received The cross in their pavilion in the Breuil-Mazicou district, on the north bank of the Tarn, which retains its working class appearance.
Around the table, two of their three children, Nadine and Grégory, who were 21 and 11 when their dad retired. For the eldest, it is also the year of her marriage to Philippe. The couple have three children who are between 23 and 33 years old. Grégory and his young companion Mélanie have a little Enzo, 4 years old.
Their career paths are very different. Nadine began a career as an accounting secretary before devoting herself to her children and then resuming a home help activity. Her husband Philippe entered the SNCF at the age of 16, by competitive examination. After two years of training, he has not left the management, where he is stationed as a switchman.
After graduating as an industrial designer, Grégory worked for Peugeot in Sochaux (Doubs) before joining the design office of a metal framework company in Albi. As for Mélanie, she stopped school at the age of 15 and took on odd jobs in catering and seasonal work.
“Never seen so many people in Albi”
Nadine and Philippe will take part in the Albigensian parade, where they expect ” a crazy world “ behind the national figures of the trade union centres. The demonstrators will come from all over the department, predicts Philippe, who, an activist at the CGT, has followed all the mobilizations since January 19, as in 2019 against the previous reform.
“Then there was the Covid, everything stopped. But what starts again today is something else, hope philip. There is union unity and people who rediscover the need to be heard. On January 19, I had never seen so many people in Albi. »
Grégory has not yet demonstrated, for professional reasons. And on Saturday February 11, it was his birthday, with friends at home. But Thursday, this staff representative, without a union mandate, will be in the street, even if it is more difficult to strike in the private sector. He remembers that, at Sochaux, he was the “first white collar” to stop working against the Fillon reform. “The next day, I was summoned by my manager,” he remembers with a smile.
The “nibbled” social pact
For twenty years, successive reforms have continued to ” nibble “ the social pact, deplores Nadine. She knows that her choppy career will deprive her of the minimum of €1,200 gross included in the bill. “Working until age 67? I do not even think about it. I want to be able to take care of my grandchildren. And with Philippe we still have a few projects to live together. »
The railwayman sees him the horizon emerge, in a little over two years, according to his calculations. That is to say at 59 years old, for the one who has worked for more than forty-one years at the SNCF. “I don’t do three-eights, but taking shifts at 4 a.m., by force, it wears out, the motivation is no longer there. »
Grégory also did simulations. He could leave with a small discount at 66, for a pension of around €1,900. If other reforms do not change the situation by then. Less exposed to hardship than the workers in his company, he nevertheless evokes the climate of tension that has changed the relationship to work.
“I thought burnout was a Parisian thing. But now I see it around me, he testifies. We are constantly in a tense flow, with procedures that are becoming more complicated. And the Covid crisis has changed things. There are executives who leave with a smaller pension. »
The younger generation less concerned
The third Tressol generation is the pride of Jean-Marie and Simone. Without counting the young Enzo, the five other grandchildren have all had brilliant studies. They work in Toulouse, or, like Alicia, in Paris. Engineer, the niece of Nadine and Grégory joined the conversation via the WhatsApp application.
She is very attached to her roots, aware of the upward social mobility that marks family history, aware of ” critical mind ” by parent teachers. But she admits not having demonstrated and not feeling her destiny linked to the future of the pay-as-you-go system. “I imagine that will change again, and the current debates seem very techno to me. I think that we lack a deeper reflection on the place of work while progress will continue to upset society. »
Of all the social struggles, his uncle Philippe recognizes that the younger generation has so far not massively joined the movement. No more than the yellow vests which, in 2018, had occupied many roundabouts in the Tarn. “It must be admitted that, until now, the mobilization has not aggregated all the anger. But if the government does not hear what is happening, it will probably harden the movement. »
Beyond pensions, it is the feeling of a risk of disintegration of society that torments the Tressol. Jean-Marie remembers that time not so long ago, the 1970s, when miners helped each other to build their pavilions with their hands. He chaired the association of the Breuil-Mazicou district, and it is now Grégory who has taken up the torch, with his sister Nadine as treasurer.
After the event for the retreats, everyone will meet at the workshops where the floats for the carnival, which begins next weekend, are made. “It is one of the oldest in France”, enthuses the forties. Between the strike and the party, the Albigensians do not necessarily have to choose.
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Albi’s choice
Union leaders, including Laurent Berger (CFDT), Philippe Martinez (CGT), Frédéric Souillot (FO) and Cyril Chabanier (CFTC), parade together in Albi, Thursday February 16. Locally, the unions get along very well, and the city, prefecture of the Tarn, is representative of the medium-sized towns, at the forefront of the protest against the pension reform.
The Tarn is traditionally a land of the left, acquired by the Socialist Party since 1945. In November 1980, François Mitterrand had launched his campaign in Carmaux. Albi is a historical symbol of social struggles like those of the miners of Carmaux (1892-1895) and the city of Jean Jaurès.
Saturday February 11, the unions counted 20,000 demonstrators there (6,000 according to the prefecture) for 50,000 inhabitants. The school holidays have not yet started in the department. Organizers are hoping for 30,000 protesters.