WORLD WORLDWIDE FRANCE News Journal Update - (en) France, OCL CA #332 - The mobilization against the pension reform in the Parisian civil service (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The civil service of the City of Paris has more than 50,000 employees,

with more than 250 different professions (from social action to housing,
including cleanliness and municipal police) and 2,500 sites (gardens,
offices, workshops, gymnasiums, conservatories, schools, town halls,
association centres, etc.) scattered around the city and in the suburbs
(and even outside Île-de-France). In the past, the staff had already
mobilized against the pension reform in 2020 and against the local
application of the reform of the territorial civil service in 2021
(application which imposed the increase in working time without increase
in wages, the loss of days off, the generalization of the clock, the
reduction of travel times granted to canteens). Like many professional
sectors, the Parisian civil service has been affected by more than four
months of mobilization against the pension reform.

In 2023, the mobilization against the pension reform began in the second
half of January and followed the national rhythm of the major days of
demonstration. A municipal inter-union (IS) was set up on the initiative
of the Supap-FSU which rallied UCP, FO and CFTC (1). Difference with the
national situation, the CGT, the UNSA and the CFDT did not answer the
invitation to join it (2). After the first day of the demonstration, the
SI organized union information meetings (RIS) open to all staff (January
26, February 7 and 16, March 2). Despite the name of general assemblies,
these meetings, led by the four trade union organizations (SO), were
essentially designed as moments of information on the reform and call
for demonstrations. Very followed for the first two, they saw
participation decline afterwards. This might seem paradoxical, the OS
having obtained in mid-February an uncap on union information hours, any
employee being able to attend an infinite number of GAs during their
working time as long as they address the question of the reform and that
he or she does not have a "need for service". Indeed, the banners
sometimes displayed on the facade of the Hôtel de Ville announced "The
City of Paris supports the social movement". Concretely, employees could
benefit from these "unlimited" meetings (more than twenty) as well as
from a staggering of salary withdrawals... provided they are informed
and not be held back by small bosses. Otherwise, this support for the
social movement did not go much further (for example, we did not see
much pugnacity on the part of the Mayor to oppose the requisitions of
employees and we also heard of a request for minimum service from school
staff from the "socialist" mayor of the 18th arrondissement, in April).
This low attendance at the GAs was more likely due to the lack of
wrestling prospects as the February vacation approached. Apart from the
SI, the CGT trade union committee held two unique GAs on January 18 and
19; the other SOs did not hold any meaningful city-wide meetings. If the
demands of the OS were essentially centered on the withdrawal of the
reform, the leaflets of the municipal SI proposed ways to improve the
financing of pensions (increase in salaries,
On the communication side, the CGT, the UNSA and the CFDT relayed the
calls to the big national days on the professional mailboxes. The
non-representative unions did not communicate the whole movement. From
mid-February, the Parisian SI set up a communication on the basis of a
series of regular leaflets "We will not beat a retreat - mobilization
journal" which had more than twenty issues until the month of June. The
content consisted of a reminder of the immediate topicality of the
movement, seeking to motivate staff to get involved but without
necessarily going back on claims.
Of course, sending e-mails does not solve everything. Depending on the
profession, access to a computer and its professional email is more or
less complicated. And, even when it's simple, union messages are not
necessarily read. We realized this regularly by noting that many
employees were unaware of the (small) advantages they had ("unlimited"
meetings and staggered salary withdrawals). Added to this is the
weakness of union activism with relatively few service rounds and a very
diversified union presence depending on the sites and professional
sectors. Even if "unionized" is not synonymous with "militant",
In the first period, the rates of strikers reached higher levels than
those of previous social movements (up to more than 20%, a rather
exceptional score for the City of Paris, nurseries and libraries having
been among the sectors most on strike) but it seems that this overall
result was not very visible in the eyes of the agents who had the
impression that their strike had little impact.

 From March 7
With the call to mobilize massively in the strike on March 7 or even to
renew the following days, the inter-union systematized the RIS with in
general three to four appointments per week at the Labor Exchange. But
the employees took little notice of it: the meetings were not very well
attended (thirty to forty people) and, apart from a small core, the
participants often changed at each meeting. It must be said that the
inter-union did not offer any prospects for building the struggle,
sticking to general attacks against the reform and focusing essentially
on pushing for strikes during national days and coming to swell the
procession in demonstration, not considering it possible to solicit more
employees.
Less than a dozen regular participants in the GA began a renewable
strike on March 7, assuming the fact of being in the minority in this
process (unionized CGT (3) and several non-unionized, from various
professional sectors). With the mind and time freed from work, this sort
of "mobilization committee" undertook to strengthen service rounds to
inform and mobilize colleagues. Without "competing" with the
inter-union, this group has gradually developed an autonomous expression
through a dozen regular leaflets (using a logo "City of Paris in
struggle" dating from the movement of 2019-2020) in particular to demand
more than just the withdrawal of the reform and to move on to a more
offensive struggle. Not having the means of communication of a trade
union (sent to staff e-mails), its expression remained very limited
(Facebook and physical distribution of leaflets). In addition to the
organization of numerous service tours, its members also ensured a
presence on strike pickets and blockades (dump truck garages and
incinerators) and participated in various interprofessional meetings
(such as general meetings of railway workers in Parisian stations) and
in demonstrations outside national dates, most often with a banner
identifying them (student demonstrations from March 9, interprofessional
demonstrations, but also against the Darmanin law in March and April).
then, later with the development of repression,

Events and tours
During national demonstrations, the procession of City of Paris
personnel was provided and animated, as in 2020. Inter-union (high
visibility of FSU flags, a few UCP and sometimes CFTC chasubles, absence
of FO which has always preferred its union ball, permanent presence of a
CGT banner from the City's museums calling for retirement at 60), it
brought together many non-union members and always joined processions
which did not Were not uniformly marked by trade unions (often with
processions of students, teachers, collectives of bookstore employees).
 From beginning to end, without an imposing balloon or thundering sound
system, it gave pride of place to a succession of protest slogans sung
energetically (on retirement at 60, the reduction of working hours, but
also the call for a general strike which was not, however, demanded by
the IS in AG). We also insisted on the protective side of the procession
to colleagues worried about the potential violence in demonstration.
During the service rounds, the difficulty was not to convince of the
harmfulness of the reform (unlike 2019 with the retirement on points)
but to encourage a strike. Colleagues understood that the reform would
bring them no good. If the question of the loss of salary was most often
put forward in the refusal to strike, it was above all - in my opinion -
the psychological aspect that blocked individual investment: most of the
colleagues did not believe that victory was possible and consequently
were reluctant to go on strike.

On the side of cleanliness
It was the visible sector of mobilization in the City, it is also one of
the most important services in terms of staff - 7,500 agents -, with a
higher unionization rate. Better prepared for mobilization (4), he went
on strike on March 6, in particular at the call of the majority CGT
union, until March 29, the police headquarters having launched
requisitions of employees from the 17th - after a violent police attempt
to unblock the picket the day before at the Victor-Hugo garage in
Ivry-sur-Seine. The movement was mainly followed among dump truck
drivers more than among rippers, with the blocking of five municipal
garages as well as incinerators and recycling centers (5). The movement
has also won private waste collection companies (strike at Pizzorno,
notice at Derichebourg).
After 23 days of mobilization, there were more than 10,000 tons of waste
on the sidewalks, which greatly contributed to maintaining the movement
in March. A call for a resumption of the strike on April 13 was
unsuccessful. The pickets and blockades also held up well thanks to a
very strong participation of external supporters from various backgrounds.

After 49.3
 From March 16, the use of article 49.3 and the anger it aroused gave
impetus to the movement and made it possible to mobilize more strongly
in demonstration (March 23 and 28). At the City of Paris, the small core
of strikers was then expanded by a few colleagues who, even if they did
not strike every day, did so more commonly (between fifteen and thirty
people depending on the moment, variously unionized or not, with a
notable presence of librarians). Taking advantage of this rebound, on
April 5, the municipal intersyndicale also organized an invasion of the
town hall of the 9th arrondissement whose councilor (Horizon party) had
called for the garbage collectors' strike to be broken by requisitions;
it also made it possible to discover that there were colleagues more
connected by actions than by general meetings. Similarly, on April 13,
on the eve of the opinion of the Constitutional Council, the inter-union
joined the action of the territorial Val de Marne and Attac by going to
demonstrate in the beautiful neighborhoods in front of the headquarters
of LVMH and the Dior gallery. A few Parisian strikers mingled a little
later with the participants of the interprofessional GA of the Gare de
Lyon who came to invade the offices of LVMH before a wild demonstration
on the Champs-Élysées and surroundings.
Since mid-February, the OS of the City had obtained from the employer
the staggering of the days of withdrawal on salary (two per month
maximum). If some professional sectors or some sites had specific strike
funds, unlike 2019-2020, no union had wanted to set up a fund for all
the strikers of the City, unionized or not, despite requests to this
effect during the GA. Finally, it was the renewable strikers who created
and managed this tool from the end of March.
The point of creating a fund was not only to compensate employees who
had gone on strike at the beginning of March, but also to encourage
others to do so more often. However, on this last point, the
communication difficulties of the group of strikers did not make it
possible to achieve this objective, especially since the terms of access
to the fund were only clearly validated at the beginning of May. The
money came in through collections at events, through online donations
via the inter-union platform "Caisse de solidarité" and through some
transfers from support events. In general, compared to the movement of
2019-2020, collection for strike funds was much less practiced in 2023
in the Parisian demonstrations,
After April 14 (opinion of the Constitutional Council and promulgation
of the law), the National SI set the next mobilization day for May 1.
The municipal IS followed this schedule and, without warning, abruptly
stopped holding GAs during union information hours, without offering
anything else. Despite this handicap, the collective of strikers
continued to produce leaflets and distribute them in the services, to
call for continued mobilization by supporting actions on sectoral
demands in two municipal museums (Musée Carnavalet on April 15, Petit
Palais on April 22) and by participating in interprofessional meetings
(in particular on Thursday 20 with action by railway workers in the
morning, demonstration with students in the afternoon and
interprofessional assembly in the evening). At the same time, in the
country, harassment by the president and traveling ministers kept the
focus on opposing the law. The service rounds showed that the colleagues
- even if they did not go on strike and did not massively join the
mobilization - continued to hope for a withdrawal of the law, a
non-negligible psychological point of support even if fragile. During
this same period, on April 25, 70 employees of a large Parisian site
also adopted a text encouraging the national IS to call for a general
strike, supported by three city unions (a CGT, FO and SUD union), but
the initiative was not followed up. The service rounds showed that the
colleagues - even if they did not go on strike and did not massively
join the mobilization - continued to hope for a withdrawal of the law, a
non-negligible psychological point of support even if fragile. During
this same period, on April 25, 70 employees of a large Parisian site
also adopted a text encouraging the national IS to call for a general
strike, supported by three city unions (a CGT, FO and SUD union), but
the initiative was not followed up. The service rounds showed that the
colleagues - even if they did not go on strike and did not massively
join the mobilization - continued to hope for a withdrawal of the law, a
non-negligible psychological point of support even if fragile. During
this same period, on April 25, 70 employees of a large Parisian site
also adopted a text encouraging the national IS to call for a general
strike, supported by three city unions (a CGT, FO and SUD union), but
the initiative was not followed up.

After May 1
After more than three months of mobilization, the demonstration of May
1st remained very important, in spite of a procession City of Paris less
provided than usual, in particular because of the school holidays. On
the 5th, with a voluntarist tone ("We can win. We are going to win"),
the Parisian SI followed the national recommendations, fixed on the
parliamentary calendar, by calling for demonstrations on June 6th. Then,
after the school holidays, she announced the holding of new GAs from May
25 (more than a month after the last one dated April 14) in a leaflet
entitled "General Casserolade" without the word "strike" being mentioned.
The collective of strikers joined the Parisian demonstration of the
11th, carried by student organizations and the AG interpro 92 (including
many NPA activists) but the information had not been relayed by the
unions and the participation barely reached 300 people (paradoxically,
there was nevertheless media coverage, focused on the relentless youth).
At the City, the last strikers in renewable since March 7 ended up
returning to work in the second half of the month with, for some, more
than 10 weeks off work. They and they remained mobilized, in particular
with the management of the strike fund and the compensation of the strikers.
The breathlessness of the movement in the City is marked by the very low
participation in the new series of GA proposed by the municipal IS. Less
provided than during the first demonstrations, the procession remained
still dynamic during the demonstration of June 6th.

In conclusion
The expansion of the strike to the City did not take place. While
respect for national union unity allowed the movement to last for more
than four months, it also prevented its intensification. Likewise, the
Parisian SI had no other strategy than to follow the rhythm of
mobilizations defined nationally. As for the committee of the most
motivated strikers, it also lacked the ability to really lead beyond the
"leapfrog" demonstrations. Many colleagues probably took part, from
April 17, in casserolades or even wild demonstrations - whether in Paris
or near their homes (6) - but this was done outside the framework and
working hours. Of course,
At the beginning of June, the maintenance of initiatives (hunts for
ministers) and the existence of determined sectoral movements (Tisséo,
Vertbaudet, Disney) showed that anger and combativeness were still
present, even if information on these actions may remain essentially
limited to militant circles. In the City, trade union information on
internal social movements already remains very compartmentalized:
employees in a given professional sector are generally not kept informed
of social movements in other sectors (this was still the case in the
fall of 2022 for the long strike of "excluded from the Ségur bonus" at
the social action center, with occupation of a site for a month, which
went completely unnoticed by the vast majority of colleagues, for lack
of information relay). The demonstration of June 6,
If the approach of the summer period marks the slumber of trade union
activities, it remains to be seen if the municipal IS will survive the
summer and if it will be possible to prepare for a social return without
waiting to ask the question on September 1st. Without forgetting the
question of pensions, other demands could regain importance such as the
increase in wages (on June 12, the Minister of the Civil Service made
his announcements on the meager increase in the index point, an increase
in category C wages close to the minimum wage and a "purchasing power"
bonus conditioned on the goodwill of employers in the territory),
working conditions, understaffing, widespread in all sectors (7), etc.
And, if there is fighting spirit (8),

A striker who participated in the "City of Paris in struggle" committee,
June 13

Notes
(1) The Supap (unitary union of Parisian administration staff-FSU) is
the only organization to have made strong progress in the professional
elections of December 2022 (becoming the third union in the City -
behind the CGT and the UNSA and ahead of the CFDT, which all lost votes
compared to the 2018 elections (1,000 for the CGT which remains the
first organisation, however)). The Union des Cadres de Paris (which also
organizes non-executives), FO and the CFTC are the three minority unions
among the seven representative organisations. The CGT is made up of
trade unions united in a CGT committee.
(2) The CGT crisis in 2020-2021 has left its mark. "A violent internal
crisis tears the CGT of the City of Paris", Le Monde, February 27, 2021.
A third of the excluded from the CGT would then have joined the FSU.
(3) Even if the CGT did not take part in the IS, CGT union members were
present at the GAs of the IS.
(4) "Pension reform: assessment and prospects with the strikers in the
waste sector", actualitedesluttes.info, June 5, 2023 (
5) The incinerators (TIRU) of the Central Joint Syndicate for the
Treatment of Household Waste (Syctom) in Ivry-sur-Seine,
Issy-les-Moulineaux and Saint-Ouen are respectively operated by Suez,
Urbaser and Paprec; the Romainville waste collection center is operated
by Urbaser.
(6) Around 60% of staff live outside Paris intramural.
(7) On this question, the CGT of the City organizes its "hiring office"
in mid-June, for the second consecutive year.
(8) The IS (more specifically the Supap-FSU) was considering two other
RIS in the second half of June but, two days before the first, they had
still not been announced to the employees, which does not bode well.

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article3881
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