They had announced it for several days, but the decision to mobilize is this time recorded. While the Prime Minister announced on Tuesday 10 January a postponement of the legal retirement age to 64 from 2030, the eight trade union organizations (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, CFTC, Unsa, Solidaires, FSU) announced, in a joint press release, a first day of strike and demonstration on January 19. A call for mobilization which was followed by the whole of the left, from the socialists to France Insoumise through the environmentalists.
“This reform will hit hard all workers, and more particularly […] the most precarious”, begin the unions before specifying that “the pay-as-you-go pension system is not in danger” and that “nothing justifies such a brutal reform”.
For its part, the Medef, on the contrary, welcomed “the pragmatic and responsible decisions” taken by the government to reform the pension system. “Ensuring the future of this pillar of the country’s social model, while maintaining the purchasing power of active and retired people, necessarily leads to working longer,” says the first French employers’ organization.