Action against a retirement age increase for French workers in the wake of the Paris high-speed rail, airports and trains protests on January 19
French schools, airports and trains will face heavy disruption Tuesday for the sixth time this year, as unions galvanize people nationwide in protest against government plans to raise the retirement age for most workers.
High-speed and regional trains, the Paris metro and public transportation systems in other major cities were disrupted. There were a lot of canceled flights at Paris Orly Airport.
National railway operator SNCF said very few regional trains would operate and that four out of five trains on the TGV, France’s intercity high-speed rail service, would be canceled.
The secretary general of the CGT, France’s biggest union, said in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche Sunday that unions are moving up a gear, and he expects that they will grow until the government listens to workers.
Protesters hoped that parliament would reject the retirement age increase when they organized the ninth protests in January. But the government forced it through using a special constitutional measure.
A record 1.3 million people took part in demonstrations on January 19, which brought the country to a standstill and shuttered the Eiffel Tower to visitors.
The pension legislation is needed to tackle a funding deficit, but it has angered workers as living costs are rising.
The French Parliament as a system in crisis: The opposition motions against the government and the prime minister’s presidency (with an appendix by D. Andelman)
The same article has a provision that could be guillotine-like. The opposition is able to file a no-confidence motion against the government, and two have been filed so far, one by the Le Pen group and another by a small group of moderates. The two will be considered on Monday. If either passes by an absolute majority, it means the prime minister and the entire government are out. Not that he has the right to call for another election. His presidency is secure for another four years.
The government acknowledges that changing the way the French work will be difficult, but that it insists that is necessary to balance the system’s finances.
France has one of the lowest rates of retirees who are at risk of poverty in Europe, with a net pension replacement rate of 74 percent, according to the O.E.C.D.
The government believes that rising life expectancies have left the system in an increasingly precarious state. In 2000, there were 2.1 people paying into the system for every retiree, but in 2020 that will fall to 1.7, and in 2070 it will fall to 1.2 according to projections.
The Paris School of Economics’ Bozio said there wasn’t a need to address the deficit quickly. But “once you’ve said that the system isn’t in danger or on the verge of a catastrophe,” he said, “that doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem” in the long term.
David A. Andelman is a writer, author and contributor to CNN and the French Legion of Honor. He formerly was a foreign correspondent for The New York Times and Paris correspondent for CBS News. The views expressed are of his own. View more opinion at CNN.
Is Paris burning? Is there smoke in Paris, the country with no pension reform, or even a 62-year retirement age?
A visitor from the US told me that she was walking home from a dinner date in rue du Cirque when she saw cars on fire. At Rue Royale, they were hurling tear gas. The street leading to my hotel was on fire from both ends. Is Paris burning? Yes, in my street. Now in my room I can smell smoke.”
The National Assembly has to go before voters when the President is not standing again in four years. In theory, this gives enormous power to the political extremes — supporters of Le Pen and Mélenchon, respectively on the far right and extreme left — to shape any future government or even stand for election themselves on a platform that much of the French people seem to embrace wholeheartedly: no pension reform, or even a rollback to a 62-year retirement age.
The political sharks are smelling blood even though the next elections aren’t for another four
Schools are closed because teachers are on strike. Transportation, including France’s usually reliable train service, is suddenly erratic because of the work stoppages. On top of all this, Parisians have seen their city’s streets strewn with tons of trash, after sanitation workers launched a labor action in solidarity.
It has been used by the prime minister 11 times, more than any of her predecessors except for Michel Rocard, who used it 28 times. Even de Gaulle’s three prime ministers only invoked the provision 10 times in 10 years.
Effectively, the various political currents coursing through the halls of Parliament have some tough decisions to make. Macron has bestowed a marvelous gift on his own plurality, indeed really any members of Parliament who might have even considered voting for the pension reform, by removing the need for them to declare themselves publicly for a deeply unpopular piece of legislation.
Will a new prime minister be better with a no-confidence vote in place? France is currently the only country with a retirement age of 62. Not at all, in my view, nor in Macron’s.
What do French Americans think about retirement and the role it plays in their lives? An analysis of France during the 19th century at the Eisenstein transition
When they think that they do not have enough time, have enough means to do a good job, to produce good quality work, good products and good service, they find it is not a good job, because they can’t recognize this kind of job.
Editor’s Note: Catherine Poisson is an associate professor of Romance Languages at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. Literature and culture of France has been studied from the 19th century to the present. The views expressed are of her own. There is more opinion at CNN.
I have lived in America for many years and I never fail to be shocked at the sight of older workers packing groceries. It suggests to me a deplorable lack of social supports that could allow aged people to enjoy a dignified retirement.
I’ve lived in the U.S. and France for 30 years and know both countries very well. One thing that seems clear to me is that the kind of upheaval playing out in the country of my birth would be almost unthinkable in America. Americans don’t understand how French people feel about the planned increase in the retirement age.
The closest analogy in the United States to anything like what my compatriots are experiencing would be the decision four decades ago to raise the age at which Social Security benefits are doled out.
France introduced its retirement system and the National Health care system in the aftermath of World War II but there are still some limitations that make it an envied country in Europe.
If Americans are baffled by the French willingness to fight to hold onto these hard-won benefits, it is in part because the two countries have very different ideas about what it means to be a worker. In the United States, work is seen as an identity. You are what you do.
For those of us raised in French culture, work refers to a finite period of life lasting roughly 40 years. When that is done, you are still young and fit enough to enjoy the best of what life has to offer. Retirement years are spent traveling, caring for grandchildren or picking up new hobbies.
It’s part of our social compact: The French work hard during their most productive years during which time they pay what most Americans would consider usuriously high taxes. “Troisieme Age” is the third age, and it’s anticipated. It’s a concept French people grow up with and cling to fervently for their entire lives.
The first age is when you are small. During life’s “second age,” many of us are saddled with responsibilities of work and raising children. The third age however promises a good, healthy retirement free from want and worry — the kind of retirement many in the United States cannot even dream of. It is no wonder that people are willing to take to the streets to protect it.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/23/opinions/france-pension-reform-protests-macron-poisson/index.html
Protests Against Social Reforms During the First Five Years of the French Parliament: The Case Against The “Jupiter”
Protests are also seen as a counterpoint to the governing style of the President. Years ago, he earned the nickname “Jupiter” — after the king of the Roman gods — as he was derided by some for his highhanded approach to governing — imposing his will, in the eyes of his critics, as if he were a sovereign rather than elected.
Still, there are less draconian ways to fix problems posed by a future retirement fund shortfall. The wealth tax may be reversed by the French president. He might also reconsider corporate tax breaks that have benefited big business handsomely.
Such moves are, in my view, an admission of political impotence rather than strength. The president has no desire to see politics as an art of persuasion or for him to rule according to his will. Hundreds of demonstrators protesting the pension reforms were arrested by the police in recent days, another sign that he lacks political deftness. The unions meanwhile show no sign of backing down, and are continuing to organize massive protests urging workers to stand firm and remain off the job.
What Next? The Future of Social and Union Pedagogy in Paris, Rennes, Lyon, and Toulouse During a Royal Visit to Bordeaux
So what’s next? Surely the French will continue to take to the streets, something they always do with great gusto. Beyond this, it’s hard to say how this upheaval ends.
But then I read about the latest moves to raise the US retirement age to 70, and think that my protesting countrymen have a thing or two that they can teach workers in America when it comes to protecting the sanctity of their golden years.
On Tuesday, when the British king is scheduled to visit Bordeaux, unions immediately called for more protests and strikes. The heavy wooden door of the elegant Bordeaux City Hall was set afire and quickly destroyed Thursday evening by a members of an unauthorized demonstration, the Sud Ouest newspaper said.
As fires raged in some Paris neighborhoods, Gerald Darmanin, the interior minister visited the police headquarters and promised that the British monarch would be welcomed and appreciated.
The minister said there are troublemakers who want to take over the institutions and kill the police.
The demonstrations were held a day after the retirement bill was pushed through parliament without a vote.
“While the (president) tries to turn the page, this social and union movement … confirms the determination of the world of workers and youth to obtain the withdrawal of the reform,” the eight unions organizing protests said in a statement. It called for localized action this weekend and new nationwide strikes and protests Tuesday.
Violence, a recurring issue at protests, has intensified in recent days. Darmanin said that 12,000 security forces were in the French streets Thursday, with 5,000 in Paris,
Police used tear gas to break up rioters who were throwing objects and fireworks. There was a cloud of tear gas in the Place de l’Opera. Darmanin said radicals numbered some 1,500.
Violence marred other marches, notably in the western cities of Nantes, Rennes and Lorient — where an administrative building was attacked and the courtyard of the police station was set afire and its windows broken — and in Lyon, in the southeast.
Thousands of strikers protested against the cuts to the minimum pay and pensions of teachers in the Paris and London railway stations, and warned that the retirement age will increase by 2044 to 2046
The chief of the moderate CFDT trade union says that they are trying to tell the law that it must be withdrawn.
The Education Ministry stated that about 26% of teachers walked off the job in primary and middle schools on Thursday.
At the Gare de Lyon train station in Paris, hundreds of strikers marched on the railway tracks, shouting “and we will go, and we will go until withdraw” and “Macron go away.”
“Maybe our holidays won’t be as nice this year,” Monin said, who pointed out that employees like himself in public transport aren’t paid on strike days. “But I think it’s worth the sacrifice.”
About 200 cars were stuck in the northern suburbs of Paris during rush hour, because union members blocked a bus depot.
A strike of a similar magnitude in January preceded days of small strikes and demonstrations. Next week there will be more industrial action.
In the United States and the United Kingdom, the retirement age is between 66 and 67, depending on the year you were born. Current legislation envisages a further rise from 67 to 68 in Britain between 2044 and 2046 (although the timing of this increase is being reviewed and could change).