The appointment was set a month ago. On March 7, the eight main unions called for “putting France to a standstill”. The sixth day of action against the pension reform comes after the tunnel of the winter school holidays, where the mobilization continued although mezza voce via local initiatives. A characteristic of this social movement that the employee organizations took care to underline in their own way when all the union leaders met on February 16 in Albi, in the Tarn, or even during a joint meeting of the confederations in Saint-Etienne, in the Loire, on March 2.
The end of the holidays marks a change in dimension of the protest movement launched by the CFDT, the CGT, Force Ouvrière, the CFE-CGC, the CFTC, the Unsa, the FSU and Solidaires on January 10, the evening of the announcement by Elisabeth Borne of the outlines of the pension reform project. First because this Tuesday, the unions will throw all their forces into battle. Objective: “to move up a gear”, summed up the secretary general of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, this Sunday in the “JDD”.
“Moving up a gear”
The mobilization should be historic. The peak of the parades was reached on January 31, during the second mobilization meeting, where the demonstrations had gathered almost 1.3 million people according to the police. This figure, which has been a record at least since the beginning of the 1990s, will probably be exceeded. According to police sources, between 1.1 and 1.4 million demonstrators are expected.
The change in dimension of the movement is also due to its watchword: wanting to “bring France to a halt” refers to ghost town operations in municipalities affected by factory closures, including businesses that lower their curtains . This filiation is claimed by Laurent Berger, the leader of the CFDT who is at the origin of the expression, which refers to a register of action which is not in the usual vocabulary of the central trade union.
A movement rooted in the people
In this context, the government denounces the threat of a blockage of the country, helped in this by some bullying federations of the CGT, in the forefront of which that of the chemistry whose number one called to “bring the economy to its knees” even as the return of inflation weighs on purchasing power. The executive seeks to make the social movement unpopular but has not yet succeeded in turning public opinion against employee organizations which are positioning themselves as the spokespersons of a movement rooted in the population.
The cuckoo clock strategy attempted by Jean-Luc Mélenchon will have contributed to further consolidating the inter-union, driven by the strong demand for unity from the workers. After having prevented the examination and the vote of article 7 raising to 64 years the legal age of retirement in the Assembly, the leader of LFI tried to appropriate the social movement in progress, finding in front of him CGT and CFDT leaders as his attempted rally against pension reform in Paris on January 21 flopped. In contrast, the statements of Olivier Dussopt qualifying Sunday in “Le Parisien” the pension reform of “left-wing reform”, after the awkward exit of Olivier Véran on Wednesday, will have rather blown on the embers.
The grandfather clause in the hot seat
As usual, the number of demonstrators will be scrutinized, that of strikers in the public service, so far limited, too. ” For the first time [depuis 1995], it is not a proxy strike, ”welcomed France Inter Frédéric Souillot, the leader of FO, on Saturday. However, it will always be impossible to count the private sector employees participating in the movement. The most visible opponents of the reform will, as usual, be public employees.
In energy, the strike began on Friday afternoon with production cuts in several nuclear power plants, a way for the CGT to support the debate on the abolition of special regimes, included in article 1 of the bill. which was passed by the Senate on Saturday. A vote that does not close the subject since the grandfather clause is still in the hot seat.
The truckers will be there
Tuesday promises to be a black day in transport while at the RATP and the SNCF the renewable strike has already been decided. And this time the truckers are in the game. Dams, snail operations, blockages of logistics platforms announced from Sunday evening should punctuate the day of the 7th.
The Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, nevertheless endeavored this Sunday on France 3 to give them assurances to prevent this movement from lasting. “I do not rule out that there are very specific, very targeted actions, but I believe that it will be isolated,” he said, explaining that he had started a “discussion with truck drivers on end-of-life leave. activity to sustain it”.
A day of blocking and then leaving? As for the government, the issue for the unions who will meet on Tuesday evening is already focusing on the aftermath. They called for maintaining the pressure on March 8, women’s rights day, at the heart of the controversy over the reform. On the 9th, the young people are called upon to demonstrate in turn. But the confederations rely on the field. “General assemblies will decide whether or not to renew the movement”, explained Frédéric Souillot on Saturday.