WORLD WORLDWIDE POLAND FRANCE News Journal Update - (en) Poland, ozzip: France: A lot of people on the streets, but the economy is not locked [interview] (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Solidaires trade union at the demonstration (slogan from the banner: "Pensions -

not one day more, not one euro less!") ---- Solidaires trade union at the
demonstration (slogan from the banner: "Pensions - not one day more, not one euro
less!") one euro less!")
Interview with Sylvain Alias from the French Solidaires union about the ongoing
strikes and protests against plans to raise the retirement age. ---- For more
than a week, the largest wave of demonstrations and strikes in the last 20 years
has been taking place across France. The vast majority of French protest against
the reform planned by the Macron government to raise the retirement age. Despite
the dissatisfaction expressed in the streets and the strikes that partially block
some sectors of the economy, especially transport and refineries (since Tuesday,
March 14, ports and docks have also announced a 72-hour strike), on Saturday,
March 11, in the evening, the Senate approved the text of the bill.

[UPDATE 17.03: Mass mobilization in workplaces and on the streets led to a
collapse of majority support in the National Assembly just before the vote on the
16.03. Reacting to the threat of burying the reform, Prime Minister Elisabeth
Borne pushed it through by decree, without a vote. For this purpose, she invoked
Article 49.3 of the 1958 Constitution, which in exceptional situations gives the
prime minister the ability to legislate without a parliamentary majority.
Macron's party is widely criticized for its tendency to rule by decree based on
Article 49.3. The current authorities use decrees very often, pushing through
other reforms in the labor code and setting the state budget. Prime Minister
Elizabeth Borne has used the law of decree and ordinance 11 times in just 10
months of her rule. The Prime Minister's latest decree has deepened the crisis in
France. The coalition of trade unions has announced a mass mobilization for March
23 - the ninth day of the general strike]

Sylvain Alias explains the situation from the point of view of the Solidaires
union in an interview conducted on March 15, which can be considered a
continuation of the previous one, published in November 2022 on the website of
Poznanskie Kolo Mlodych OZZ IP.

What do you think about the pension reform being approved by the Senate? Do you
think the government will not back down even in the face of such protests?
Nothing is certain at the moment. The bill still has to go through the National
Assembly (Thursday March 16), then it will go back to the Senate... it goes back
and forth, we don't know if it will be implemented. There have been laws that
have been passed but never implemented. The public was dissatisfied, so the
president decided not to implement them.

How has the situation changed since our last conversation?
Since October last year, the situation has definitely changed. At that time, a
month of strikes at refineries practically paralyzed the logistics sector,
because it was difficult to get gasoline. Since mid-January, mobilization has
been going on against the reform, which assumes raising the retirement age to 64.
Among its supporters, one argument is that it is only two more years, but due to
legal loopholes, the actual retirement age would increase much more. In fact, the
contribution period required to access a pension has already been modified under
Francois Hollande (President 2012-2017) who increased it to 43, which raised the
retirement age from 61 to 63. So today, if this reform were to be applied, for
many people it would mean retiring at the age of 66 or 67. This has mobilized a
lot of people and from the point of view of the trade unions it is an
unprecedented move, because all trade unions, even the most moderate ones, are
calling for a strike. There is an inter-union coalition, even if this does not
remove the political differences between the various groups. For example, the
CFDT does not require, as we do, a return to retirement at the age of 60 with a
37.5-year contribution period.

Among the most active compounds is of course CGT, but Solidaires also works strongly.

It also seems to me that this is a special movement, because not only workers are
involved, universities are also blocked...
Yes, some universities have been blocked, most recently in Rennes...

In Lyon too...
The participation of students is certainly not insignificant, they also
understood that we are all in the same boat, because the reform will also affect
them when they enter the labor market... But when it comes to strikes, it is more
complicated. Only transport is on strike, but trains are still running, and in
Paris, for example, only some subway trains are blocked. We have very little news
from the refinery. Unlike the 1995 movement, also against pension reform, where
the country was paralyzed for more than a month (thanks to the railway workers'
strike), today we have no general impulse to renew and extend strikes that could
block everything. The general assemblies and all workers are not completely
united. In 2019, this happened to the employees of the Paris metro, but this is
not the case.

What are the reasons for this?
A strike means no pay, and right now with inflation and a volatile economy,
people are thinking twice about stopping their jobs.
The demonstration last Tuesday (March 7) was the largest in 20 years.
Demonstrations in general involve young people, collectives, there are also
climate demands in the demonstrations, youth movements, collectives of
undocumented migrants, LGBT collectives ... it gives a lot of energy. Since the
movement began, several demonstrations have been held in parallel in some cities,
something that has not been seen for decades. If unions are more united, it's
because what the government wants is really rotten. The situation is paradoxical:
a lot of people on the streets, but the economy is not blocked.

This paradox results from the fact that a large part of the demonstrators are
young people who have not yet entered the world of work?
Partly. so-called the labor aristocracy (refineries and transport - e.g. railway
workers, who can earn 2,000 euros net per month), which has more union rights
than others, is in favor of blocking, but when you hear the spokespersons of
these sectors, they say that they do not want to block themselves. But for most
of the private sector, the average salary is around 1,300/1,400 ero net, so it's
hard for them to imagine going on strike, for livelihood reasons. Material
conditions are difficult.
Anyway, on Wednesday (March 15) there was a new call for strike action. Without a
doubt, what is interesting today is the number of people on the street.

What do you think about the effectiveness of street actions?
They show that many people are not happy, last Tuesday there were many, many
people. But the government is not listening. What is needed is to lock down the
economy. But the general context explains the fact that there is no mass strike
movement. In 1982, everything was closed (public services in particular: the post
office, the railway, ...). Today it is more complicated to carry out because many
public services have also been privatized. Employees work in public services but
no longer have public employee status. The dematerialization of services also
plays a role here: there are fewer people in each workplace.

Do trade unions think about strategies to adapt the strike to the current situation?
Maybe we should fetishize the general strike less. and think about something
else, at the moment there is a lot of debate in workplaces and trade unions ...
for now it is still in the reflection stage. When you hear people talking at
demonstrations, not everyone has ready-made answers. In various circles of
unionized workers, a strike is still impossible... In other sectors, like Amazon,
people are participating in the strike movement, but not on a day-to-day general
lockdown. The pay is too low... In the care sector it's also complicated. In
fact, as in the hospital, some nurses go on strike, while others work at the same
time. Other people in the industry are often employed in small branches and small
structures. In addition, there are greater concerns about stopping services,
because then there would be a lot of people, e.g. patients who could not be
helped, etc. And this affects the sense of ethics of health and care staff. The
social sector is also one of the sectors where many people are not organized in
trade unions. It is also worth mentioning the workers of Family Planning
(Planning Familial, a feminist movement and folk education operating throughout
France) in Bordeaux, who have been on strike since March 7 and intend to remain
on strike until at least March 15.

What is your action plan for the coming days?
On Wednesday there will be a demonstration calling for a strike, I think it will
be a big one. The coalition of unions is holding firm and week after week there
are several demonstrations a week.
But the government does not want to listen to the dissatisfied. The authorities
say that this reform is a necessity.

As Solidaires, we say we should reduce working hours to 32 hours, this would give
employees more time to develop and lower unemployment levels. Then we fight to
increase wages by returning them to the level of inflation. Until the 1990s,
wages followed inflation and were gradually frozen. We also demand the right to
training and improving the qualifications of employees.

But this is an employers' government, a liberal one that does not hear the voice
of the people. Macron says he has been elected to change the labor code, and that
is exactly what he intends to do.

What about police violence?
We have been observing an increase in police violence against social protests
since 2016. In Paris there was a change of prefect, but not of commissioners.
When the police charge in, they hit everyone. Many comrades were arrested. Since
Tuesday, far-right movements with conspiracy theories have attacked the police,
but also union marches, because they say that unions are sold out...

Interviewed by Ester Bartolussi, Poznan Young Circle IP

https://www.ozzip.pl/publicystyka/walki-pracownicze/item/2951-francja-duzo-ludzi-na-ulicach-ale-gospodarka-dziala
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