29 days! This Thursday, January 2 is the 29th day of mobilization against the pension reform in France. This makes it the longest continuous strike in transportation for over thirty years. And without the prospect of resolving the social conflict, the strike could still go on for a long time.
No to pension reform
At the origin of this strike, there is the governmental project of universal system of retirement by points. A reform dear to the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron. He wants to merge the 42 existing plans, including special plans that allow train drivers to retire earlier. The government of Edouard Philippe promises a fairer device.
But the population does not want this reform. Many French people remain attached to the current model, a pay-as-you-go system reputed to be one of the most protective in the world.
Opposition to the government project began on December 5. For 29 days, train traffic has been disrupted throughout France, as has Parisian public transport.
Previous locks
You have to go back to 1986 to find an almost as long strike within the SNCF. Railroad workers defend wages and working conditions. The movement lasted from December 18, 1986 to January 14, 1987, 28 days without a Christmas break.
In 1995, Prime Minister Alain Juppé’s pension reform project set fire to the powder. This project concerns the retirement schemes of civil servants and public service employees. SNCF traffic will be paralyzed for 22 days, from November 24 to December 15, 1995. Faced with the scale of the movement, Alain Juppé will finally renounce his reform.
15 years later, in 2010, Prime Minister François Fillon also attended a mobilization which put an end to the SNCF. Here too, it is a pension reform project that is at the heart of the dispute. The Fillon government wants to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. SNCB will be stopped for 17 days.
In 2018, rail workers are on strike for 36 days over three months. The dispute spreads from April 3 to June 28, at the rate of two days of work stoppage out of five. The reform aims to transform the SNCF into a public limited company and put an end to recruitments to railway worker status from January 1, 2020. The reform will come into force.
Macron stays the course
Tuesday evening, in his speech and the presentation of his wishes to the FrenchEmmanuel Macron pleaded for appeasement, while recalling the importance and the necessity of this pension reform. The Head of State affirmed that the reform will be “completed“and called on the government to”find a quick compromise“with trade union organizations.
A speech that went very wrong with the unions. The secretary general of the CGT, at the head of the dispute, Philippe Martinez, called “all French people to mobilize, go to demonstrations and go on strike“A national mobilization day against the project is scheduled for January 9.
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