French retirement age strike hits schools and trains

French retirement age strike hits schools and trains

Walks occurred in urban communities across France, including the southern city of Decent

A cross country strike is in progress in France in a moment wave of fights against President Emmanuel Macron's arrangements to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

Eight major associations are participating in the strike, which is upsetting schools, public vehicle and petroleum processing plants.

Fights are occurring across France, following a first day of activity pulled in excess of 1,000,000 individuals.

The associations said a portion of the country's instructors had joined the strike.

The training service said the number was a little more than a quarter.

The Macron government is pushing ahead with its annuity age changes notwithstanding assessments of public sentiment that recommend 66% of electors are against the changes, which start their entry through Public Gathering one week from now.

Without a larger part in parliament, the public authority should depend on the traditional conservatives for help as much as the decision gatherings' own MPs.

In front of the principal fight in Paris, a huge number of marchers turned out in Toulouse, Marseille and Decent in the south, and Holy person Nazaire, Nantes and Rennes in the west.

Road fights were normal in something like 200 towns and urban communities and a revealed 11,000 police were sent to cover the showings.

In a few urban communities, the numbers were supposed to be higher than during the principal public strike 12 days prior. Thierry, 58, told Le Figaro that he had started working at 18 years old and felt that functioning significantly longer felt out of line.

"Mr Macron is sure to lose," extreme left pioneer Jean-Luc Mélenchon told journalists in Marseille. "No one needs his changes, and the more the days go by, by the more prominent the resistance to them."

There was extreme disturbance to ship, with one of every three rapid trains running and just two driverless metro lines working typically in Paris. Huge groups were accounted for on one of the primary overground lines in the capital.

The CGT association said no less than 3/4 of laborers had left at the enormous TotalEnergies petroleum processing plants and fuel stops, albeit the organization said the number was far lower.

Power plants revealed decreased creation after laborers protested at the primary power organization EDF.

main electricity company EDF.

French high school students block the access to the Lycee Turgot highschool in Paris during a nationwide day of strike and protests against French government's pension reform plan in France, January 31, 2023IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS
Image caption,
High school students took part in the protests on Tuesday in support of the strikers

One of the main teachers' unions said some 55% of secondary school teachers had walked out. High school pupils staged protests outside some schools and students said they would occupy Sciences Po university in Paris in support of the strikers.

"A lot of French people feel that working is more and more painful. It's not that they don't want to work, they don't want to work in these conditions," Sciences Po political scientist Bruno Palier told the BBC.

The government has indicated it may move some way on the detail of the reform but has refused to give in on the main thrust of the raising the retirement age by two years to 64.

"Any kind of reform that is going to ask people to work longer will be unpopular, but we've been elected on this reform," said Christopher Weissberg, an MP in President Macron's Renaissance party.

At 62, France's retirement age is lower than most other countries in Western Europe. Italy and Germany have moved towards raising the official retirement age to 67, while Spain's retirement age is 65 and in the UK it is 66.

In France, very few workers have personal pensions linked to capital investments, but there are now only 1.7 workers paying into the shared pension fund per person in retirement.

"We have a universal system, and the system has to pay for itself. If not, it's weakening and if it's weakening, at some point, people will lose their pension," Mr Weissberg warned.

Economist Prof Philippe Aghion said the reforms were necessary because France had a structural deficit of some €13bn ($14bn; £11bn) and raising the retirement age would also help increase the rate of employment in France.

"That will give the government credibility to make some investments that it needs to make in schooling, in the hospital system that it needs to improve, and more investment in innovation and green industrialisation," he told the BBC.

 

 

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